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Advocates launch desperate effort to save Oklahoma man from execution in 1992 murder

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Advocates launch desperate effort to save Oklahoma man from execution in 1992 murder


Anti-death penalty activists on Monday kicked off a campaign seeking clemency for the next person slated to be executed in Oklahoma.

Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was convicted in 1994 for the 1992 murder of a convenience store owner, was given an execution date of September 26 by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Wednesday.

Reverend Jeff Hood, a death row spiritual advisor, and Abraham Bonowitz, Death Penalty Action Co-Founder Executive Director, argued at a press conference that a lack of evidence pointing towards Littlejohn’s co-conspirator Glenn Bethany — who is currently serving a life sentence — being the person that fired the fatal shot made the scheduled execution an injustice.

“This is not a clear case,” Hood said. “This is a case where we have a number of issues, a number of problems.”

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In an interview with USA Today ahead of the press conference, Littlejohn accepted responsibility for his role in the robbery but maintained his innocence in the murder.

“They don’t want to punish me for what I did do, the robbery and all that,” Littlejohn said. “They want to kill me and I didn’t kill nobody.”

The group presented a video appealing to the people of Oklahoma to contact Governor Kevin Stitt and advocate for Stitt to grant Littlejohn clemency.

“He understands being held accountable for participating in a robbery that went awry,” Bonowitz said. “How is it that the shooter, the actual shooter, is getting a lesser punishment than he is?”

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Oklahoma and the death penalty

Stitt has used his clemency power once in his tenure, sparing the life of Julius Jones after a high-profile advocacy campaign. The state has executed 13 people since Stitt lifted a moratorium on executions in 2020.

“Governor Stitt has a moral responsibility to the people of Oklahoma to do the right thing no matter what he has done in the past,” Hood said. “I’m an old preacher, I believe it’s possible for people to get saved.”

Oklahoma has executed 124 people since 1976, the second most in the country since the reinstatement of capital punishment

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board could recommend Littlejohn’s punishment be changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a hearing scheduled for August 7. Stitt can only act if the board recommends clemency.

What happened in Emmanuel Littlejohn’s case?

Littlejohn was one of two robbers who took money from the Root-N-Scoot convenience store in south Oklahoma City on June 19, 1992. Littlejohn was then 20.

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The owner, Kenneth Meers, 31, was killed by a single shot to the face as he charged at the robbers with a broom. Witnesses differed on who fired the gun. Hood and Bonowitz pointed to witnesses that said the “taller man” was the shooter, referring to Bethany.

Bethany was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1993.

Littlejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1994. A second jury in 2000 also voted for the death penalty at a resentencing trial. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the resentencing because of improper testimony from a jailhouse snitch.

Central to Littlejohn’s appeal was a claim of prosecutorial misconduct. His attorneys complained the same prosecutor argued at the first trial that Bethany was the shooter and then argued at the subsequent trial that Littlejohn was the shooter.

“It has long been established that prosecutors may not violate fundamental principles of fairness,” one attorney told a federal judge in 2005.

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Littlejohn exhausted his appeals in 2018.

That complaint was repeatedly rejected on appeal. The Court of Criminal Appeals found in 1998 the prosecutor did not act improperly “given the uncertainty of the evidence.”

A federal judge in 2010 found the prosecutor made no outright assertions that Bethany was the shooter at the first trial but instead “reminded the jurors that it was their task to determine whether Bethany was guilty of malice murder or felony murder.”

The judge noted that in Littlejohn’s trial the prosecutor went further and adamantly asserted that he was the actualshooter.



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Three Big 12 Transfers Oklahoma State Is Reportedly Interested In

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Three Big 12 Transfers Oklahoma State Is Reportedly Interested In


PORTAL TRACKER 

Oklahoma State’s newly constructed staff got on the board Saturday, picking up portal commitments on offense and special special teams, so how about some defense?

Three Big 12 defenders have been linked with Oklahoma State via the transfer portal over the past few days, including a pair of former OK Preps standouts. Here’s a look.

Kanijal Thomas, CB, Kansas State

Thomas is an Oklahoman, playing his high school ball at Del City. He visited Stillwater on Saturday, according to On3.

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He was a redshirt sophomore for the Wildcats in 2025, playing in seven games as a true freshman in 2023 before an injury saw his sophomore season end two games in.

Thomas played in eight games at K-State in 2025, finishing the year with five tackles, a PBU and a forced fumble. According to PFF, he gave up four catches for 21 yards this season on seven targets.

Now listed at 5-foot-11, 186 pounds, Thomas was a three-star prospect coming out of Del City in the 2023 class. He picked K-State over offers from OSU, Texas Tech, Iowa State and others.

Maurion Horn, CB, Texas Tech

Another Oklahoma kid, Maurion Horn has spent the past four seasons in Lubbock, where he has played in 30 games during that time. According to 247Sports, Horn will visit Stillwater on Monday.

He started all of Tech’s games in 2024, finishing that season with 56 tackles, three tackles for loss and five pass breakups. He played in seven games and dealt with some sort of injury, appearing on Tech’s availability report in Weeks 4, 14 and 15.

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Horn has been targeted 88 times in his career, per PFF, where he has allowed just 47 catches.

He was a four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class out of Broken Arrow. He ended up picking Tech over offers from OSU, OU, Texas, Baylor, Arkansas and others.

Braylon Rigsby, Edge, Texas Tech

Listed at 6-foot-2, 275 pounds, Braylon Rigsby will join his Texas Tech teammate in Stillwater on Monday, according to 247Sports.

He’s played in 26 games across the past two seasons in Lubbock, accumulating 25 tackles and three tackles for loss during that time.

Per PFF, Rigsby has 21 QB pressures in his career to go with two QB hits.

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He hails from Woodsville, Texas, which is near the Louisiana border. Rigsby was a three-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, coming in as the No. 861 player in the 247Sports Composite ranking.



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Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma

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Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma


Elite Delta Force captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife about 2 a.m. Saturday morning.

It happened in the Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela.

Social media posts how strikes ordered by President Trump into Venezuela and its military bases.

News 9 political analyst Scott Mitchell said the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America has not always been smooth and adds so many dominos will fall as a result.

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“Venezuela is the beachhead for our adversaries that’s Cuba and Russia and China and Iran and it looks as if this latest situation where that they were assembling Iran swift attack boats that was sort of the last straw,” said Mitchell.

Retired war correspondent Mike Boettcher said the planning on capturing Maduro began in mid-December.

He adds Venezuela is a massive oil supplier whose oil has been taken off the market for years because of sanctions.

He has concerns about what comes next.

“That disrupts a lot of things.It even has an effect on the war in Ukraine, as Russia, you know, has used higher oil revenue because Venezuela’s oil was off the market.Oil prices went up.It helps fund the war in Ukraine,” said Boettcher.

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The ramifications could even reach Oklahoma.

“China gets a 30 percent discount on the oil.If Venezuela goes for a more legitimate government and the sanctions are lifting, then they’re flooding the oil markets and that means bad news for the Oklahoma economy,” added Mitchell.

Following the capture of Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. will take control of the oil reserves in Venezuela.

Sources also say there are plans from the current administration to recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars in their oil industry.

A verified video shows the current state of Venezuela after the military operation.

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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal

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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal


Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.

Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.

At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.

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Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.

Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.

Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.

Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

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