Kendrick Simpson, the first person Oklahoma had executed in 2026, thanked his supporters for coming to watch him die, but said nothing about the men he was convicted of killing or the friends and family they left behind.
“Love y’all,” Simpson said, before naming the people who attended. “Thanks for being here to support me. That’s it.”
Simpson, 45, was convicted in 2007 of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Glen Palmer, 20, and Anthony Jones, 19. Prosecutors said Simpson fired roughly two dozen rounds from a semi-automatic rifle into the victims’ vehicle after a confrontation near an Oklahoma City nightclub in 2006. A third man in the car, London Johnson, survived and later testified against him.
Simpson’s spiritual advisor began reading from the Bible at 10:07 a.m. as Simpson’s eyes closed. The condemned man opened them one more time to look at his supporters and give them a thumbs up. Witnesses could hear Simpson snoring at 10:12 a.m. as he was declared unconscious. Two tears fell from his left eye and passed over two tear-drop tattoos on his upper cheek minutes later. He was declared dead at 10:19 a.m.
Simpson did not share a message about his victims or for their survivors, something that upset Crystal Allison, Palmer’s sister, who spoke to reporters on Thursday after the execution.
“On his deathbed he’s still smiling,” she said.
“I was expecting more of a sincere apology to our families,” Allison said. “Not just a smile to his family … the same smile that has been tormenting me for 20 years.”
Allison said that while she didn’t feel closure watching Simpson die, the execution did represent a chapter of her life ending.
“Justice was definitely served,” she said. “Thank you to the State of Oklahoma. Now I can turn the page.”
Last month the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3–2 to deny clemency for Simpson, clearing the way for his execution.
At his clemency hearing, Simpson’s attorneys argued that his trial lawyers failed to fully present evidence about his traumatic upbringing and mental health struggles. They said Simpson endured severe childhood abuse, grew up in an unstable household marked by addiction and violence, and later suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. His legal team also pointed to his displacement after Hurricane Katrina and a prior incident in which he had been shot multiple times as factors they said contributed to his mental state at the time of the crime.
Simpson addressed the board during the hearing, expressing remorse for the killings and apologizing to the victims’ families. His attorneys asked the board to recommend commuting his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. But the victims’ family members urged the board to deny clemency, describing the lasting impact of the killings on their lives.
Allison, who said she woke up the morning of the execution in the middle of a nightmare, said “nothing changes” for her now that her brother’s killer is dead.
“Honestly the clemency hearing ripped the Band-Aid off the wound that was already healed,” Allison said. “This doesn’t heal anything … I’m a God-fearing woman, in those days you killed someone, you got killed right then,” she said. “Not 20 years later.”
Johnson, who survived the shooting, attended the execution but did not speak to reporters. Allison said Johnson “did nothing but pray” as he watched Simpson die “because he’s had to bottle up a lot of emotions over the years.”
Raymond Eugene Johnson, who was convicted in Tulsa County of killing his girlfriend and her infant daughter, is expected to be the next person Oklahoma puts to death. His date of execution has not yet scheduled, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
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Dylan Goforth helped launch The Frontier in 2015. He became Executive Editor in 2017. He covers politics and criminal justice.
Contact: dylan@readfrontier.com or 918-931-9405.
