Prosecutors only had to show that Tremane Wood took part in a robbery for him to be convicted of murder. The case haunts Jera Burton, who was 24 years old when she served as the jury foreperson in 2004 in Oklahoma County District Court.
The court sentenced Wood to death, even though his brother confessed to the killing,
Evidence presented at Wood’s trial was minimal, Burton told The Frontier.
Burton said that she walked into the courtroom crying after four hours of deliberations because she felt pressured to change her vote to guilty.
“I don’t feel like that is a call that any human should be able to make. I don’t feel like justice is being served by ending another person’s life just because we lost one, especially if the other surviving victim is totally against it,” Burton said.
Now Burton is trying to stop Wood’s execution. She said she regrets voting in favor of sentencing Wood to death and wishes she had stood up for what she felt 20 years ago. If she had, Wood might not be facing death next week.
Wood’s case has sparked controversy across the state as supporters try to save his life, claiming his case highlights problems with Oklahoma’s death penalty.
On New Year’s Eve in 2002, Wood and his brother, Zjaiton Jake Wood, enlisted two female friends to pose as prostitutes and lure men to a local hotel, where the brothers would attack and rob them at knife and gunpoint, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office. Two travelling workers, including Ronald Wipf, were the group’s second robbery of the night.
Both Wood brothers wore masks, trench coats and leather gloves. Tremane had a knife, and Zjaiton had a gun.
One traveler survived the attack and escaped but couldn’t say who killed Wipf because he didn’t witness the stabbing, and the attackers wore masks.
The state argued that Wood must have killed Wipf because he had a knife for both robberies. But the prosecution didn’t even have to prove that Wood stabbed Wipf. When someone dies during the commission of another felony, prosecutors can charge all participants with murder, even if they didn’t intend to kill anyone.
The crime is called felony murder. At a hearing at the Oklahoma Capitol last year, a federal public defender said a jury can find someone guilty of murder and recommend the death penalty, even without establishing the defendant was responsible for a killing.
Wood has always denied stabbing Wipf.
“It’s important to me that, you know, I am flawed and in many ways, a broken human being with the pressures of life hanging in the balance. It gets tough trying to balance it all, but I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer. I never was, and I never have been,” Wood said at his clemency hearing on Wednesday.
One of Wood’s attorneys, Amanda Bass Castro Alves, told The Frontier that felony murder is an easy way for prosecutors to secure a conviction.
“So it is an easy way for prosecutors to seek the death penalty and to make someone eligible for the death penalty without having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt those two critical elements, intent to kill, and that you yourself took a human life,” she said.
The Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office charged the Wood brothers and the two women involved in the attack with first-degree murder, but only Tremane was sentenced to death.
One woman was convicted of accessory to murder after the fact and conspiracy to commit a felony and sentenced to 45 years in prison and the other received life in prison with the possibility of parole for the murder and 101 years for the robbery. Zjaiton was sentenced to life without parole.
While Zjaiton confessed to the killing, he also said his brother wasn’t present during the robbery, which conflicted with accounts from other witnesses. Zjaiton died in prison by suicide in 2019.
Wood’s supporters say he had poor legal representation. The Oklahoma Bar Association suspended Wood’s attorney in 2006 because he struggled with alcohol and cocaine addiction, according to court records. He was eventually reinstated after completing substance abuse treatment.
After completing rehab, he apologized for providing Wood poor representation.
New allegations emerge
As Wood’s attorneys try to stop his execution with a flurry of new court filings, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has accused him of orchestrating crimes from death row with contraband cell phones. The Attorney General’s office submitted copies of text messages and photos to the Pardon and Parole Board that it claims show Wood is involved in gang activity, selling drugs and ordering hits on other prisoners. Some photos appear to show Wood posing with wads of cash and drugs.
Drummond has argued that Wood is still a danger to society.
“Clemency is not a right; it is an act of mercy considered only for those who, at minimum, demonstrate genuine remorse and moral transformation. Tremane Wood has done neither,” Drummond told the Pardon and Parole Board on Wednesday. “His continued predatory conduct reveals a recidivistic and deeply malignant mindset, one that remains as dangerous behind bars as it was on the night that he took the innocent life of Ronnie Wipf.”
Wood’s attorneys claim Drummond’s new allegations have unfairly prejudiced the court and violated his constitutional rights. Attorneys claim in a brief filed at the U.S. Supreme Court this week that Drummond secretly emailed the presiding judge at the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals about the gang allegations while the court was considering setting Wood’s execution date.
Wood admitted to the Pardon and Parole Board that he had made poor choices in his life, including from death row.
“Being in this place is a lot like being in quicksand,” he said. “The more you struggle trying to get out, sometimes the deeper you sink into the culture. It’s not something I’m proud of.”
Even after the recent misconduct surfaced, letters of support have poured in for Wood. The Pardon and Parole said it has received 215 letters and emails urging the board to recommend clemency. The agency has also received over 1,500 emails supporting Wood through an online campaign since July, according to a spokesperson
Barbara Wipf, the victim’s mom, told HuffPost that she doesn’t support the death penalty because of her faith.
Castro Alves said Wood’s case illustrates a flawed criminal justice system.
“I think it shocks and disturbs people because the death penalty is supposed to be — under the Supreme Court’s and the Constitution standard— reserved for the worst of the worst murderers who commit the most heinous murders,” she said.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has voted 3-2 to recommend clemency for Wood. It’s now up to Gov. Kevin Stitt to decide whether to continue with the execution or commute Wood’s sentence.
