An Oklahoma prisoner is making a final desperate plea to avoid execution scheduled for Thursday, in a case that has sparked widespread controversy about justice and the death penalty in America.
A Case of Confessed Guilt and Legal Failure
Tremane Wood, convicted of first-degree felony murder in the 2001 stabbing death of 19-year-old Ronnie Wipf, has spent 21 years in prison, 16 of them in windowless concrete cells in Oklahoma State Penitentiary's underground block. Prisoners have described the conditions as resembling a tomb.
Now 46, Wood faces execution on 13th November 2025 using a controversial three-drug protocol that has been linked to several botched executions in recent years. His case has drawn attention because his brother, Zjaiton "Jake" Wood, voluntarily confessed to actually committing the murder during Tremane's trial.
Despite this confession, Tremane was convicted under Oklahoma law which only required prosecutors to prove he participated in the armed robbery that resulted in death, not that he delivered the fatal blow. In a twist of legal fate, Jake received a life sentence while Tremane was handed the death penalty.
Questionable Legal Representation and Family Trauma
Tremane Wood's trial lawyer, John Albert, admitted to drinking heavily during the proceedings, with other attorneys and court filings alleging he took cocaine. Albert failed to call key witness Lanita Bateman, one of two women involved in the incident, who stated Jake admitted to her after leaving the motel that "he thought he'd killed a guy".
After the death sentence was passed, Albert handed Wood a business card bearing the words: "I'm sorry. You got me at a bad time."
Amanda Bass Castro-Alves, Wood's current lead attorney, stated: "One of the biggest injustices in Tremane's case is that the system appointed him a trial lawyer who was abusing substances at the time."
Wood's childhood was marked by violence and trauma. His father, Raymond Gross, a police officer, subjected his mother to horrific abuse, including one incident where he stripped her, tied her to a bed, covered her with alcohol and threatened to set her alight.
Andre Wood, 49, Tremane's brother, recalled: "He told me to tell my mother goodbye. Tremane saw a lot of abusive actions. We would hear my mother screaming."
Final Days and Political Dimensions
In the days leading to his scheduled execution, prison authorities moved Wood to a transparent cell directly adjacent to the execution chamber and removed all phone contact with family and friends. Jasmine Brown-Jutras, a community organiser who visited him, described the situation as "surreal".
In one of his final emails to a friend, Wood wrote that the constant surveillance "makes my anxiety shoot through the roof".
The Oklahoma pardon and parole board recently voted three to two to recommend clemency, but the final decision rests with Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, a death penalty supporter who has previously ignored clemency recommendations.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is aggressively supporting the execution, claiming Jake's confession was false and arguing that "mercy without repentance is not justice. It is permission for evil to endure."
Wood's family believes Drummond, who is running for governor, is using the case for political advantage. Andre Wood commented: "The aggressive actions that the attorney general took to try to get Tremane's execution was political. I think he is doing it to show people he's a 'plays no games' type of person, just like Donald Trump."
Remarkably, even the victim's family doesn't support the execution. Barbara Wipf, Ronnie's mother, speaking from her Hutterite community in Montana, said: "Our belief is that God will judge, that he will be judged on the judgment day."
At his clemency hearing last week, Wood maintained: "I'm flawed and in many ways a broken human being. But I am not a monster. I'm not a killer."
If the execution proceeds, it will be the 42nd in the United States since Donald Trump resumed federal executions after taking office for the second time, reversing Joe Biden's moratorium.
