To Kill or Not To Kill: The state of Death Row, executions, and the men (and one woman) facing the lethal needle
- Dennis McCaslin
- May 1, 2025
- 3 min read
Oklahoma, with the highest per capita execution rate in the U.S., has been a focal point in the national debate over capital punishment, carrying out a significant number of executions while navigating legal challenges and temporary stays.
Between 2023 and 2025, the state executed several death row inmates, maintained a substantial population on death row, and issued temporary stays for others, reflecting a complex interplay of justice, mental health concerns, and prosecutorial issues.
Since resuming executions in 2021 after a five-year moratorium prompted by botched lethal injections, Oklahoma executed 11 inmates between 2023 and 2025 as part of a plan to execute 25 prisoners by December 2024.
In 2023, the state carried out executions of Scott James Eizember (January 12, Canadian County), Jemaine M. Cannon (July 20, Tulsa County), Anthony Castillo Sanchez (September 21, Cleveland County), and Phillip Dean Hancock (November 30, Oklahoma County). In 2024, executions included Michael Dewayne Smith (April 4, Oklahoma County), Richard Norman Rojem (June 27, Washita County), Emmanuel A. Littlejohn (September 26, Oklahoma County), and Kevin Ray Underwood (December 19, Cleveland County). In 2025, Wendell A. Grissom (March 20, Blaine County) was executed.
These executions, all by lethal injection, followed convictions for first-degree murder, with several inmates raising claims of mental illness, intellectual disability, or self-defense that were ultimately rejected.
Notably, Hancock and Littlejohn received clemency recommendations from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, but Governor Kevin Stitt declined to grant clemency, a rare occurrence as Stitt has granted clemency only once since 2021.
The execution of Underwood marked the nation’s final execution of 2024, drawing attention to Oklahoma’s aggressive schedule, which accounted for a significant portion of the nine states that carried out executions that year.
As of March 22, 2025, Oklahoma houses 29 inmates on death row, including one woman, Brenda Andrew, at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, with male inmates held at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
These inmates, convicted of first-degree murder, include individuals like John F. Hanson, whose clemency hearing is scheduled for May 7, 2025, and others such as Termane Wood, Kendrick A. Simpson, and Raymond Eugene Johnson, who await potential execution dates.
The death row population has decreased from 43 in 2022 due to executions, commutations, and deaths in custody, such as Byron James Shepard’s in 2020. No new death sentences have been imposed since May 2022, marking the longest such period in Oklahoma since at least 1974, reflecting a national trend of declining death penalty use.
Many inmates face prolonged waits--often years--without scheduled execution dates. Concerns persist about the fairness of trials, with issues like prosecutorial misconduct and inadequate mental health evaluations raised in cases like Hanson’s, whose execution is set for June 12, 2025, pending clemency.
Two inmates currently have temporary stays of execution. Richard E. Glossip, convicted in 1998 for a murder-for-hire plot, has faced nine execution dates, with his latest stay granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023.
In February 2025, the Court overturned his conviction, citing prosecutorial misconduct, and ordered a new trial, a rare victory for a death row inmate.
Brenda Evers Andrew, the only woman on Oklahoma’s death row, received a stay in January 2025 when the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s decision, citing prejudicial gendered evidence at her 2004 trial, potentially leading to a new trial.
Additionally, Julius Darius Jones, convicted in 2002, had his sentence commuted to life with the possibility of parole in 2021 after two clemency recommendations and significant public advocacy, including celebrity support, though his case remains controversial.
Two inmates, Wade Greely Lay and James C. Ryder, have been ruled incompetent for execution due to severe mental illnesses (schizophrenia and paranoid schizophrenia, respectively), halting their execution processes indefinitely.
Oklahoma’s execution pace--nearly monthly from August 2022 to December 2024--has strained Department of Corrections staff, prompting Attorney General Gentner Drummond to extend intervals between executions from 60 to 90 days in 2023 to avoid botched procedures like those in 2014 and 2015.
The state’s reliance on a three-drug lethal injection protocol, including midazolam, has drawn criticism following incidents of inmates convulsing or vomiting during executions.
Advocacy groups, including the ACLU, highlight Oklahoma’s high error rate, noting one exoneration for every 11 executions, with Glossip’s case underscoring risks of wrongful convictions.
As the state plans potential executions in 2025 for inmates who have exhausted appeals, the debate over capital punishment’s reliability and morality continues to intensify, with Oklahoma at its epicenter.
