Oklahoma executed Emmanuel Littlejohn for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner, despite a recommendation from the state’s parole board to spare his life. Governor Kevin Stitt declined to commute Littlejohn’s sentence to life in prison without parole, citing the jury’s decision to impose the death penalty. Littlejohn received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and was declared dead at 10:17 a.m.
Littlejohn’s execution, the third in Oklahoma this year and the 14th since the state resumed executions in 2021, came after legal challenges to the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection method were denied. If another execution scheduled in Alabama is carried out, it would be the first time in decades that five death row inmates were executed in the U.S. within one week.
Littlejohn, who was convicted at the age of 20 for the robbery and shooting of the convenience store owner, maintained his innocence, apologizing to the victim’s family but denying firing the fatal shot. His attorneys argued that prosecutors today would not have pursued the death penalty for his crime, and cited the prosecutorial tactics of former Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy, who secured numerous death sentences during his tenure.
Governor Stitt has only granted clemency once during his time in office, when he commuted Julius Jones’ death sentence in 2021. He has denied clemency recommendations in several other cases, including Bigler Stouffer, James Coddington, and Phillip Hancock, all of whom were executed.
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