Oklahoma executed the man Slusday 20 years ago for fatally shooting a woman deadly during a home break-in and robbery.
Death row inmate Wendell Grissom received a fatal injection at McClester’s Oklahoma State Prison. The prison official told The Associated Press that Grissom, 56, was declared dead at 10:13am. Six were fired by lethal injections, two by nitrogen gas and the other by squad.
“It took him a total of 13 minutes to die and a total of two minutes to kill my best friend,” said Dreu Kopp, who was shot multiple times in Grissom but managed to escape from the house.
Grissom and co-defendant Jesse Floyd Johns were convicted in 2005 of murdering Amber Matthews, 23, and injuring KOPF at KOPF’s Blaine County residence.
“I apologized to you all for hurting you,” Grissom said while tied up to a gurney, an IV line stuck on her right arm. “I regret so much that I put that hatred in your heart for me.”
When the deadly drug began to flow, the minister prayed at Grissom’s feet. He let out a few powerful breaths and was able to hear the snoring as the doctor entered the execution chamber and unconsciously declared him about five minutes later. He appeared to be holding his breath at 10:09am and the colour began to drain from his face.
Over 20 of Matthews’ friends and family witnessed Grissom’s execution.
Prosecutors said Grissom, who had a long criminal history, picked up hitchhiking Johns and the two men were driving west on Interstate 40 when they decided to commit a robbery. They randomly chose KOPF’s home near Watonga where Matthews had visited KOPF and her two young children.
Matthews was shot twice in the head and seriously injured by KOPF, which allowed him to live on the floor and continue running, getting help on Grissom’s truck, prosecutors said. Grissom and Johns also escape on a stolen 4-wheeler, but soon ran out of gas and were captured after getting on a cafe in a nearby county.
Authorities have found that the KOPF children were still inside the house and physically unharmed. Matthews died after flying by helicopter to Oklahoma City Hospital.
Grissom’s lawyers did not dispute his guilt, but in a generous hearing he was suffering from brain damage that he was never presented to the ju judge. The state’s pardon and parole board rejected Grissom’s request.
Grissom’s lawyer told the board that he always accepted responsibility and wrote an apology to Matthews’ family in his first interview with police.
“He can’t change the past, but he is now and always deeply embarrassing and regretting,” said Christie Christopher, a lawyer at the Federal Public Defence Counsel.
KOPF told the board that she still carries deep mental and physical scars from the attack, including fragments of bullets remaining on her body. She said that for years after the attack, she was called 911 when the doorbell rings unexpectedly or when a stranger appears in her neighborhood.
“I always lived in a state of heightened fear,” she said with tears.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond calls Matthew’s murder the “textbook” death penalty case.
“The crime committed by Grissom is a very species that awakens people at night at the holiness of their own home,” Drummond said at a hearing last month.
Oklahoma’s approach to obtaining and administering deadly drugs has been undergoing severe scrutiny in recent years, with the state Department of Corrections being previously accused of failed procedures within the execution chamber and has since faced extensive public safety investigations. The state first approved a new controversial method of implementation Nitrogen hypoxia In 2015, I have never used it before. Oklahoma uses a deadly injectable cocktail that includes three drugs that start with sedatives and begin with a second drug to paralyze the inmates and three drugs to stop the heart.
Corrections Department via the Oklahoma Associated Press
Before Grissom, it’s the last state Kill prisoners with fatal injections In December.
Three other executions are scheduled this week. Louisiana murdered a man on Tuesday He first used nitrogen gas and resumed executions after 15 years of hiatus. The man who invited his girlfriend’s ex-husband to kill him Performed by a fatal injection on Wednesday In Arizona. Another lethal injection is scheduled for Thursday in Florida.
Kevin Ray Underwood’s deadly injection in December was the 127th execution by Oklahoma since the US reinstated the death penalty in 1976, state prison records show.
