Macalester, Okla.– A man who denies stabbing a migrant farm worker to death during a 2002 robbery is still scheduled to be executed Thursday in Oklahoma. A government committee recommended that his life be saved.
Treman Wood, 46, is scheduled to receive lethal injection at Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester. The Board of Pardons and Paroles issued an unusual pardon Last week’s recommendation. If Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt takes no action, Wood’s execution is expected to take place at 10 a.m
“I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer,” Wood told the council via video link from prison. “I never was, I never was.”
Stitt, who served two terms and cannot seek re-election in 2026, did just that Clemency is granted only once During his nearly seven years as governor.
A spokesman for his office said he plans to meet with prosecutors, defense attorneys and the victim’s family members before making a decision.
Wood was sentenced to death for his role in the killing of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Montana, during a botched robbery attempt at a hotel north of Oklahoma City on New Year’s Day 2002.
Wood’s lawyers did not deny that he participated in the robbery, but they confirmed that it was his brother, Zigton Wood, who stabbed Wipf. Treman Wood’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves, said Zjayton Wood was sentenced to life in prison without parole and died in prison in 2019 after confessing to several people that he killed Wipf.
Wood’s lawyers also asked the US Supreme Court to stay the execution. They say, among other things, that prosecutors did not properly disclose details of a plea agreement with a key witness.
Prosecutors portrayed Wood as a dangerous criminal who continued to participate in gang activity and commit crimes while in prison, including buying and selling drugs, using contraband cell phones, and ordering attacks on other people in prison.
“Even within the confines of the maximum security prison, Treman Wood continued to manipulate, exploit, and harm others,” District Attorney Gentner Drummond said.
During his testimony last week, Wood accepted responsibility for his misconduct in prison and his participation in the robbery, but reiterated that he was not the one who killed Wipf.
“I regret my role in everything that happened that night,” he said.