A death row inmate in Oklahoma was preparing for his scheduled execution Thursday when Gov. Kevin Sitt spared his life and announced his decision to commute Tremane Wood’s sentence from death to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Wood, 46, is the sixth condemned person to receive clemency in the state in the modern history of capital punishment. 

Clemency came after a vote last week by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended it.

“After a thorough review of the facts and prayerful consideration, I have chosen to accept the Pardon and parole Board’s recommendation to commute Tremane Wood’s sentence to life without parole,” Sitt said in a statement Thursday morning. “This action reflects the same punishment his brother received for their murder of an innocent young man and ensures a severe punishment that keeps a violent offender off the streets forever.”

Wood was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker from Montana, during a botched robbery at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year’s Eve, according to court records. He and his legal representatives maintained Wood’s innocence in the murder, saying the inmate was involved in the robbery but not the killing — which, they say, his brother committed alone.

The brother, Zjaiton Wood, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for Wipf’s murder and died while incarcerated in 2019, The Associated Press reported. 

“We are profoundly grateful for the moral courage and leadership Governor Stitt has shown in granting mercy to Tremane,” said Amanda Bass Castro-Alves, one of Wood’s current attorneys, in a statement on Thursday. “This decision honors the wishes of Mr. Wipf’s family and the surviving victim, and we hope it allows them a measure of peace.”

The announcement marked Sitt’s second clemency grant since taking office, with the last going to former death row inmate Julius Jones in 2021. Jones’ commutation came on the heels of significant public outcry over his case, as people questioned whether or not his conviction for murder was legitimate.   

Wood and Jones sought to overturn their death sentences in 2017 with a lawsuit that alleged Oklahoma’s capital punishment infrastructure was racist and biased, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

COMANCHE COUNTY — The Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association is calling cockfighting a public safety crisis. The OSS wrote a letter to the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation, strongly supporting the FIGHT (Fighting Illegal Gaming and High-Risk Animal Trafficking) Act, or HR 3946.
 
It is viewed as a positive step by animal rights groups, like Animal Wellness Action, that have often accused Oklahoma law enforcement of turning a “blind eye” to enforcing illegal animal fighting operations.

According to the letter signed by OSA Deputy Director Kyle Keller, the FIGHT act would provide tools that would be indispensable to Oklahoma sheriff’s departments, many of which are limited on budget and manpower.

It states sheriffs often encounter other illegal activity associated with animal fighting events, like gambling, drug dealing, violence and human trafficking.
 
The letter states the FIGHT act would:
• Ban simulcasting and gambling on animal fights
• Prohibit the shipment of mature roosters through the U.S. mail
• Create a citizen suit provision, allowing private individuals to take legal action against illegal animal fighters
• Enhance forfeiture provisions to include real property used in the commission of animal fighting crimes
 
2 News often hears from the gamefowl community after airing stories, and are told their voice isn’t heard. We spoke with B.L. Cozad of Comanche County on his views of the laws.

He believes that banning cockfighting goes against seven amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and that the government shouldn’t place higher value on gamefowl lives than his rights.

2 News interview with gamefowl farmer

2 News’ Erin Christy: Are you a cockfighter?
 
Cozad: I own gamecocks. Yes, I do I’m a gamecock farmer.
 
Christy: Do you fight them?
 
Cozad: You harvest your gamecock, you harvest your livestock.
 
Christy: When you use the term harvest, what do you mean?
 
Cozad: You’re making an economic harvest are you not?
 
Christy: Oh you’re making money. So your ‘economic harvest’ is fighting gamefowl.
 
Cozad: The same way gamecocks have been harvested for more than 3,000 years. You compete them against another gamecock.
               
Christy: You believe cockfighting should be legal because it’s within your right?
 
Cozad: It is legal. The law is unconstitutional. Any law that is unconstitutional is an illegal law.
 
Christy: But you would have to take the issue of cockfighting to the Supreme Court for them to declare it’s unconstitutional. We can’t just make that assumption on our own.
 
Cozad: Oh, yes, we can, because every person every person has their own, ideas and their own understanding of the Constitution of the United States. We don’t have rulers in America.
               
Christy: You believe regardless of whether the state law, the federal law… you just believe that no matter what, the current status is– It is a legal thing to do.
 
Cozad: Here’s the thing…
 
Christy: No, I’m asking you a question.
 
Cozad: I understand you’re asking me a question. The thing is, is what I’m telling you, the law is unconstitutional. Any law that is unconstitutional is illegal.
 
Christy: As one, I’m assuming, goes or has been to cockfighting events, based on what you’re telling me, do you believe the notion that cockfighting events bring along with it other illegal activity?
 
Cozad: No, there’s no notion. Understand, If you criminalize a football… there are drugs at every football game ever played. Okay? And if you criminalize football, Or, can you criminalize football because someone at the football game had drugs?
 
Christy: Football is not illegal.
 
Cozad: If somebody was to show up at a football game with drugs, we could call the police and have them arrested. But if somebody, because I wouldn’t want drugs at the football game, if someone shows up with drugs, we are at a disability (sic).
 
Christy: Because you’re at an illegal event.
 
Cozad: When are you gonna wrap your head around the fact that the law is unconstitutional, and any law that is unconstitutional is an illegal law?
 

Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere —