According to court documents Emmanuel Littlejohn and Glenn Bethany would enter a convienence store and in the process of the robbery the store manager Kenneth Meers would be shot and killed
Emmanuel Littlejohn and Glenn Bethany would be arrested and charged with murder and robbery
Glenn Bethany would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole
Emmanuel Littlejohn would be convicted and sentenced to death
Littlejohn would later say that he did participate in the robbery however it was Glenn Bethany who would murder Kenneth Meers
Littlejohn would ask for clemency and the Oklahoma parole board actually would vote in favor of clemency however the final decision was up to the Governor. The Governor of Oklahoma refused to grant clemency and Emmanuel Littlejohn would be executed by lethal injection on September 26 2024
Emmanuel Littlejohn Execution
Oklahoma executed a man by lethal injection on Thursday morning, despite conflicting evidence regarding his guilt.
Emmanuel Littlejohn, 52, was executed by lethal injection for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner during a robbery in Oklahoma City. Littlejohn was the third inmate put to death by the state this year. He was 20 years old at the time the crime was committed.
During the robbery, the store owner, Kenneth Meers, 31, was shot in the face while trying to defend himself. Although Littlejohn admitted to his involvement in the robbery, he has maintained that his accomplice, Glenn Bethany, was the one who pulled the trigger. Bethany was sentenced to life without parole, while Littlejohn was sentenced to death.
“I committed a robbery that had devastating consequences,” Littlejohn said during the hearing. “But, I repeat, I did not kill Mr Meers.”
Littlejohn’s case has raised questions over conflicting evidence, with some witnesses pointing at Bethany as the shooter. His legal team argued against his execution, citing “inconsistent prosecutions” in his case. His lawyers also mentioned Littlejohn’s troubled childhood and underdeveloped brain at the time of the crime.
His team emphasized his personal growth in prison, where he has become a positive role model for his family.
“He was young and foolish,” Littlejohn’s mother, Ceily Mason, told KFOR. “He’s grown up and older, and he deserves a chance.”
Several jurors have admitted they mistakenly voted for the death penalty because they misunderstood the implications of a life without parole sentence.
During a hearing last month, Oklahoma’s pardon and parole board voted 3-2 to recommend the state’s governor, Kevin Stitt, spare Littlejohn’s life.
In 2021, the governor commuted the sentence of Julius Jones, who was convicted for the 1999 murder of Paul Howell, to life without the possibility of parole just a few hours before his execution. But no such decision was taken for Littlejohn.
Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, argued against clemency to the governor, calling Littlejohn a “violent and manipulative killer”.
Littlejohn had expressed remorse for the robbery and sought forgiveness from the victim’s family, who were still in favor of his execution. The family described Meers as a pillar of the community, and his brother, Bill Meers, expressed that he could not forgive Littlejohn for taking his brother’s life, according to the local news outlet Oklahoma Voice.
Anti-death penalty activists, including the Rev Jeff Hood, have rallied around Littlejohn’s case, expressing their concern over the uncertainty of whether he was the actual shooter.
The last few days have witnessed a slew of executions across the country. On Tuesday, Marcellus Williams, 55, and Travis Mullis, 38, were executed in Missouri and Texas, respectively. Alan Miller, 59, is also scheduled for execution in Texas on Thursday.
Last week, South Carolina executed Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah just days after the key witness for the prosecution came forward to say he had lied at trial and the state was putting to death an innocent man.
According to court documents Ramiro Gonzales would go to the home of his drug dealer in order to rob him of his drugs and money. However when he arrived at the residence he would be surprised by eighteen year old Bridget Townsend, the girlfriend of the drug dealer
Ramiro Gonzales would sexually assault and murder Bridget Townsend before robbing the home and fleeing
Ramiro Gonzales would be arrested on another sexual assault charge and when he was in custody would admit to the murder of Bridget Townsend and lead police to her body
Ramiro Gonzales would be convicted and sentenced to death
Ramiro Gonzales would be executed on June 26 2024 by lethal injection
Ramiro Gonzales Execution
Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales by lethal injection on Wednesday for a 2001 murder, the state Department of Criminal Justice said, following unsuccessful appeals to the US Supreme Court that argued, in part, he should have been ineligible for the death penalty under state law because he is no longer dangerous.
Gonzales, 41, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 for the sexual assault and killing of 18-year-old Bridget Townsend, court records show. His execution was the first of two – the other in Oklahoma – scheduled this week in the United States.
Gonzales was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m., the state criminal justice department said.
The department provided Gonzales’ last statement before he was executed, in which he repeatedly apologized to the Townsend family and said he “never stopped praying” for their forgiveness: “I can’t put into words the pain I have caused y’all, the hurt what I took away that I cannot give back.”
“I hope this apology is enough. I lived the rest of this life for you guys to the best of my ability for restitution, restoration, taking responsibility,” Gonzales said. “I never stopped praying that you would forgive me and that one day I would have this opportunity to apologize.”
During the penalty phase of Gonzales’ trial, jurors were required to find, as they are in all capital cases in Texas, a “probability” Gonzales would continue to “commit criminal acts of violence.” Without this determination, capital defendants in the Lone Star State are not eligible for the death penalty, per state law.
In their appeals to the Supreme Court, Gonzales’ attorneys said his track record these last 18 years shows he is not dangerous, pointing to his commitment to his Christian faith, ministry to others behind bars and his unsuccessful attempts to donate a kidney to a stranger in need.
Additionally, they said the evidence relied upon to make the finding of future dangerousness was false: An expert witness who diagnosed the inmate with antisocial personality disorder relied on recidivism data later found to be incorrect, and he has since evaluated Gonzales and walked back his testimony.
In a pair of brief orders Wednesday, the US Supreme Court gave no comment in its denial of Gonzales’ requests. There were no noted dissents.
Gonzales’ attorneys, Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann, said in a statement Monday: “Ramiro not only has disproven the jury’s prediction – he has never committed a single act or threat of violence since he was sentenced to death in 2006 – but in fact actively contributes to prison society in exceptional ways. He should not be executed.”
The state of Texas had also opposed Gonzales’ appeals, arguing in part his team had misconstrued the eligibility requirement and contending the question of whether Gonzales would continue to be a threat is not limited to the inmate’s behavior on death row.
Even when his behavior post-conviction is taken into account, “there’s undoubtedly sufficient evidence to uphold the finding of future dangerousness,” attorneys for the state wrote, pointing to the subsequent kidnapping and rape of another woman and a litany of transgressions he committed while in jail.
“Even if a jury could somehow consider events that had not happened yet, i.e., Gonzales’s behavior on death row, the jury could still have rationally believed Gonzales would be a danger in the future,” they said.
On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend clemency in a 7-0 vote. Without that recommendation, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is limited by state law to issuing Gonzales a one-time 30-day reprieve.
CNN has reached out to the Medina County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, and members of Townsend’s family for comment.
In his final statement before execution, Gonzales also thanked his family and friends, along with two officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for “the opportunity to become responsible, to learn accountability and to make good.”
Gonzales murdered Townsend in January 2001, after he called the home of his drug supplier, her boyfriend, in search of drugs, according to a 2009 Texas appeals court opinion affirming the inmate’s conviction and death sentence.
When Townsend told Gonzales her boyfriend wasn’t home, he went to the house in search of drugs. He stole money, then kidnapped Townsend, tying her hands and feet before driving her to a location near his family’s ranch, the opinion states. There, he raped and fatally shot her, it says.
The case went unsolved for 18 months. Then, while sitting in jail after pleading guilty to the rape of another woman, Gonzales confessed to Townsend’s killing and led authorities to her body.
Gonzales’ execution was the nation’s eighth this year, with the ninth slated for Thursday in Oklahoma, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization that tracks capital punishment in the US and has in the past been critical of the way it’s administered.
Oklahoma intends to execute Richard Rojem for the 1984 kidnapping, rape and murder of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Layla Cummings, court records show. The state’s parole board voted last week against recommending clemency for Rojem, who claims he is innocent, according to CNN affiliate KOCO.
Rojem, like Gonzales, would be the second person executed in their respective states so far in 2024, according to the center’s data. By this time last year, 13 inmates had been put to death in the US, the data shows.
According to court documents Michael Smith went looking for a man who he believed was talking to the police about his illegal activities. When Smith arrived at the home he did not find the man he was looking for so he would fatally shoot the man’s mother Janet Moore
On the same day Michael Smith would rob a conveience store where he would shoot and kill the clerk Sharath Pulluru
Michael Smith would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
On April 4 2024 Michael Smith would be put to death by lethal injection
Michael Smith Execution
A man convicted of killing two people in Oklahoma more than two decades ago was executed Thursday, marking the state’s first execution of the year. Michael Dewayne Smith received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m., the Department of Corrections confirmed to CBS News.
The execution followed the state’s controversial decision to restore capital punishment in 2021 after bungled executions called its protocols into question.
When asked if he had any last words, Smith responded, “Nah, I’m good,” according to the Associated Press.
Smith, 41, was sentenced to death in Oklahoma after his convictions two decades ago in the murders of Janet Moore, a 41-year-old mother, and Sharath Pulluru, a 22-year-old store clerk. The shootings that killed them were carried out separately on Feb. 22, 2002, while Smith was already on the run in the wake of a prior killing, authorities have said.
Oklahoma’s execution process lasted just over 10 minutes on Thursday after beginning at 10:09 a.m., said the state prisons director, Steven Harpe, in a statement obtained by CBS News. Smith was declared unconscious at 10:14 a.m., according to that statement. A spiritual adviser joined Smith in the death chamber at his request, the director said. The inmate did not request a last meal
“Today’s event and the circumstances that led to it have affected many people — especially the family and friends of victims Janet Moore and Sharath Pulluru,” Harpe said. “As an agency, we carried out the court’s orders according to our high standards of professionalism and respect for those in our custody, ensuring dignity for everyone involved in the process.”
Smith tried to appeal his sentence multiple times throughout most of his imprisonment, records show. Among other arguments made in his defense, Smith and his legal team have insisted that he is not responsible for either of the murders for which he was convicted, despite his previous confession to both crimes. They pushed for clemency on the grounds of an apparent former substance abuse problem and intellectual disability, since a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the latter would prevent Oklahoma from executing him. None of Smith’s appeals were successful in court.
Ahead of a hearing in March that sealed Smith’s fate, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond put out a formal request to the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, asking them to deny his plea for clemency.
“Michael Smith’s outrageous claims of innocence have been repeatedly rejected in court,” Drummond said in a statement. “He is a ruthless killer who has confessed to his crimes on multiple occasions. There is no doubt in my mind that his request for clemency should be denied.”
Drummond alleged that evidence found at the scenes of both murders corroborated Smith’s confession. He also dismissed the inmate’s plea for lenience based on a supposed intellectual disability and noted that Smith’s IQ scores rendered that claim “statutorily ineligible.”
At the hearing, Smith denied his involvement in the murders but shared his “deepest apologies and deepest sorrows to the families” of the victims, the Associated Press reported.
“I didn’t commit these crimes. I didn’t kill these people,” Smith said in emotional remarks. “I was high on drugs. I don’t even remember getting arrested.”
The parole board ultimately denied Smith’s clemency petition in a 4-1 vote, and his execution was scheduled to move forward.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals also rejected an emergency stay of execution for Smith earlier this week, CBS affiliate KOTV reported. His third and final emergency plea to the criminal appeals court came on the heels of others in recent months that were denied, including one motion that sought post-conviction DNA testing, according to the station.
The court said in its opinion that conducting more tests would not change the validity of Smith’s conviction, KOTV reported, noting the appeals court’s references to “a very detailed, highly corroborated confession” that Smith gave to police, which was allegedly supported by other confessions and crime scene evidence.
CBS News contacted the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.
Smith was among 43 prisoners on death row in Oklahoma. He was the first executed there this year, and the twelfth since the state resumed capital punishments after a seven-year break in 2021. That hiatus came in response to a string of botched lethal injections in 2014 and 2015, particularly the bungled execution of Charles Warner, a former death row inmate who witnesses said suffered excessively in the death chamber. It was later discovered that Oklahoma had used an incorrect and unauthorized drug in the lethal injection cocktail used for Warner’s execution.
Oklahoma agreed to pause executions as investigations into what went wrong got underway. But the state went on to resume an execution schedule in late 2021, months before a federal trial was set to examine its lethal injection protocol. The state botched its first execution, of former inmate John Grant, by lethal injection upon its return to the schedule.
Oklahoma adopted its own state policy authorizing capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The first execution did not happen until 1990, and the state has put 123 prisoners to death since then. One federal execution has also been carried out in Oklahoma.
Another Oklahoma death row inmate, 60-year-old Richard Glossip, is currently trying to appeal his sentence and has so far gained more headway with state officials, including the attorney general, who have openly argued his innocence. The Supreme Court agreed in January to hear Glossip’s case after Drummond claimed issues with his trial should invalidate the prisoner’s conviction and sentence.
According to court documents Charles Coleman would break into the home of John Seward who would be fatally shot during the robbery. Coleman would also murder Roxie Seward at the same time
Charles Coleman would also murder Will Stidham who was the father of his girlfriend in California. However he would later be acquitted for the murder. Coleman was also suspected of the murder of Russell E. Lewis
Charles Coleman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Charles Coleman would be executed by lethal injection on September 10 1990
Charles Coleman Photos
Charles Coleman Case
Charles Troy Coleman, the first Oklahoma inmate to be executed in 24 years, was pronounced dead at 12:35 a.m. today.
Witnesses said Coleman’s last words were “Just tell everybody I love them. I have a peace and quiet heart.”
When a minister read from Matthew 7, Coleman said, “Praise God, praise God.”
State corrections department spokesman Jerry Massie announced the death, saying, “The execution has been carried out.”
Coleman, 43, was the first Oklahoma inmate to be killed by lethal injection, a process using three drugs to cause unconsciousness, paralyze the breathing muscles and stop the heart
Immediately after the execution, Gov. Henry Bellmon said, “After 11 years of appeals, including seven to the U.S. Supreme Court, the execution of Charles Troy Coleman has been carried out as provided by law.
“Justice has been done,” Bellmon said in a statement issued from the governor’s mansion.
“It is regrettable that some individuals are capable of committing heinous crimes against innocent citizens. The death penalty, justly applied, is one of society’s defenses against future violent crimes.
Coleman’s execution was scheduled to begin at 12:02 a.m. today.
Andrew Tevington, Bellmon’s chief of staff, said the execution was delayed. He said authorities had planned to use catheters “one in the left arm and one in the right” to administer the lethal injections.
“But Coleman’s right arm had been injured earlier in his life, causing the vein to be severed,” Tevington said.
Prison officials then administered the drugs in the left arm, Tevington said.
The curtain opened in the execution room at 12:22 a.m., and Coleman turned his head to the audience, smiled and and nodded at his attorney, Mandy Welch, and other witnesses.
He then said, “Just tell everybody I love them.”
At that point, the minister, Jack Hawkins, asked Coleman if he wanted him to read Psalms 27. Coleman nodded yes.
At 12:25 a.m., the warden said, “Let it begin.”
At 12:26 a.m., Coleman seemed to take a heavy breath, followed by a light cough or gasp and his eyes shut.
The procedure continued until a prison doctor entered the room and checked his heart with a stethoscope. Witnesses said Coleman took on a dark-blue look at about 12:30 a.m. Security at Oklahoma State Penitentiary was increased and all state correctional institutions were alerted that inmate tension might be heightened by the execution. But there were no problems reported immediately.
Coleman, sentenced to death for a 1979 murder in Muskogee County, was given the chance for a last statement before Oklahoma State Penitentiary warden James Saffle gave the order to begin the execution.
After Coleman’s death was confirmed, the body was taken to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy
Earlier Sunday, the U.S. Supreme Court twice denied a stay of execution, the second denial after a denial from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
Supreme Court spokesman Ed Turner said both a stay request and a petition of certiorari (review) were denied. Justice Thurgood Marshall dissented and Justice Harry Blackmun did not participate, Turner said.
The final denial was the high court’s sixth in the Coleman case.
Bellmon, who had the final word on Coleman’s fate, reviewed a second clemency plea filed by Coleman’s attorneys, but took no action.
Opponents and proponents of the execution gathered Sunday night outside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
About 50 people walked silently up the street to the prison about 90 minutes before the execution. Many wore T-shirts saying, “Don’t Kill For Me.”
They joined a small group in front of the prison and they lit candles.
The marchers were followed by two Oklahoma City teen-agers who carried a sign saying, “One down, 114 to go,” in reference to the number of inmates on Oklahoma’s death row.
Outside the prison walls, the group grew to about 150 death penalty opponents and proponents.
Some sobbed, others celebrated. There were scattered heated discussions, but authorities said there were few problems with the crowd. Protesters carrying candles sang hymns and prayed as the midnight hour approached.
They left at 12:10 a.m., apparently not realizing the execution had been delayed.
About 30 supporters of the death penalty surrounded television reporters until word came down that Coleman was dead. They cheered and applauded at the news.
In contrast to the protesters’ earlier solemn strains of “Amazing Grace,” the last of the crowd broke into a ragged chorus of “Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye.”
Ken Busch, father of a young Yukon girl who was slain earlier this year, said he was there as a supporter of capital punishment.
“Where was the ACLU and all these opponents when the victims were murdered?” he asked.
Coleman was taken from his death row cell at 8:05 a.m. Sunday and escorted by guards across the light-filled rotunda, through a barred gate into a paneled hall.
Massie said Coleman was allowed visitors until 9 p.m. “He has had family and friends visiting all day,” Massie said.
They were not immediately identified.
Coleman made his final telephone calls about 10 p.m. Although a television was within his view, he did not watch news accounts of the events leading up to his death, Massie said.
Coleman did not request a last meal. He also turned down the standard dinner fare of macaroni goulash, salad, peas, cornbread and cake that other inmates ate Sunday night.
“Some (prison) officers ordered some stuff (about noon), and offered him a hamburger and he ate it,” Massie said. “He did not request it.”
Massie also said Coleman gave no instructions as to what to do with his personal effects from his death row cell.
At 11:30 p.m., the 12 media witnesses walked one block to the prison and were led into the viewing room. Other witnesses to the execution included four witnesses selected by Coleman. Corrections department officials and the sheriff, district attorney and judge of Muskogee County, where the crime was committed also were witnesses.
Coleman’s death came 24 years and one month to the day after the last state inmate was executed. James Donald French was electrocuted Aug. 10, 1966, for killing a cell mate.
The Oklahoma Legislature established lethal injection as the method for state executions in 1977, two years before Coleman was convicted of the shotgun slaying of John Seward of rural Muskogee County.
Seward and his wife, Roxie, were killed Feb. 9, 1979, after they apparently interrupted a burglary at relative’s home. Police found the Sewards’ billfolds and items from the house in Coleman’s pickup when he was stopped later the same day for speeding.
Fourteen states have executed 137 people since 1977, when Gary Gilmore of Utah became the first to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court ended a 10-year moratorium on enforcing the death penalty.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which has jurisdiction over Oklahoma, has allowed only three executions since the death penalty was reinstated. Two of the three, including Gilmore, went willingly.
Coleman’s criminal career began at the age of 15, when he was arrested on a burglary charge. He escaped juvenile detention a month later by pulling a gun on an officer.
His record shows at least 15 arrests in five states during the next 25 years. Many were for such charges as burglary, grand theft and grand larceny, but as he grew older, he was arrested for crimes such as robbery and assault.
In 1976, he was charged with first-degree murder in California in the bludgeoning death of the father of a female friend. He was acquitted when witnesses recanted their trial testimony.
The Sewards’ deaths occurred one day after the expiration of a travel permit issued by the California parole office to allow Coleman to look for a job in Muskogee County.
While waiting for trial in John Seward’s slaying, Coleman escaped from the Muskogee County jail.
Authorities say he fled to Luther, where he slit the throat of a Luther police officer and left him handcuffed in his patrol car. The officer survived.
Then, authorities say, Coleman stole a car from a man he fatally shot in Tulsa and was recaptured after he handcuffed and abandoned in the desert an Arizona deputy, who said Coleman was preparing to shoot him.
He was convicted and given a death sentence for the Tulsa murder, but the conviction was overturned in 1983 by the state Court of Criminal Appeals.
The court ruled the conviction was illegal because a potential juror who expressed doubts about the use of the death penalty was excused.
The charges were not refiled.
He also was never tried in the death of Roxie Seward.
In the nearly 11 years Coleman has been on death row, his case has been heard more than 20 times by five different courts, Attorney General Robert Henry has said.
In 1987, Coleman was within 36 hours of execution when he won a stay from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
His attorney, Mandy Welch, argued in his latest appeals that mental and physical abuse prevented Coleman from understanding the consequences of his behavior and from learning from his experiences.
According to court documents Olan Robison and two accomplices would force their way into a home and would murder Julia Sheila Lovejoy, Averyl Bourque and Robert Leon Swinford
Olan Robison would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Olan Robison would be executed by lethal injection on March 13 1992
Olan Robison Case
Convicted triple-murderer Olan Randle Robison, who called himself an outlaw “not worth killing” before his conversion to Christianity, was put to death at dawn Friday.
Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Dan Reynolds ordered anonymous executioners to administer the lethal injections at 6:15 a.m. Robison, serene in the hours and minutes before his death, was pronounced dead 14 minutes later.
Reynolds said the last words he heard the condemned man utter were, “I love you, Jesus. ” Robison, 46, was sentenced to death for the murders of Julie Sheila Lovejoy, Robert Leon Swinford and Averil Joan Bourque during a botched robbery in 1980 at a home on the outskirts of Velma in Stephens County.
His death sentence in Bourque’s slaying was overturned in 1988.
Robison’s cousin and another man who accompanied him during the attempted robbery and shootings each received three life sentences.
Robison accepted responsibility for the murders, admitting that his accomplices could not have committed the crime without his help. However, Robison claimed he could not have killed the trio because he was passed out in a car due to the effects of drugs and alcohol.
In the hours leading up to his death, Robison comforted his family and supporters.
“He’s assured them he knows he’s going to heaven and they know it, too,” said Scott Braden of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System. “It’s amazing, his attitude. ” Robison’s fate was sealed when U.S. Supreme Court Justices late Thursday voted unanimously not to hear his eleventh-hour appeal
“It’s exhausted. There’s nowhere else to go,” Braden said early Friday.
In recent weeks, supporters pinned their hopes on a clemency recommendation to the governor by the state Pardon and Parole Board. Robison’s attorney, Randy Bauman, claimed his client was “the living embodiment” of rehabilitation and deserving of mercy.
However, parole board members rejected Robison’s bid for a reprieve without a dissenting vote.
Robison’s only recent legal victory came Thursday when a Pittsburg County judge issued an injunction effectively barring an autopsy on Robison’s body.
But the attorney general’s office said State Medical Examiner Fred Jordan could not sign the death certificate without performing an autopsy. Without the death certificate, family members would be unable to proceed with a cremation they had planned at a Marlow funeral home.
Spokesman Gerald Adams said Olan Robison’s body was taken to an Ada hospital until the matter was resolved.
The inmate’s supporters claimed his religious conversion, prompted by a jailhouse baptism after his arrest for the murders, was genuine and labled him a “missionary behind the walls. ” Death penalty supporters and protesters were about evenly split outside the walls of the prison.
Gloria Byars, who said she has friends and family on death row, said killing is wrong no matter what the purpose
“It’s cruel, low-down, dirty and sickening,” Byars said. “We’re going to keep on fighting it. I know there’s a God up above who’ll look down and fix it. ” But Trina Tomberlin, whose brother was a murder victim, said execution is justice. “People who choose to murder give up their right to life
