Death penalty opponents urge halt to next execution in Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A group called Death Penalty Action is urging Governor Kevin Stitt and Attorney General Gentner Drummond to stop the execution of Oklahoma’s next inmate.

Emmanuel Littlejohn is scheduled to be executed on September 26, 2024. He has spent the last 30 years on death row for the shooting death of supermarket manager Kenneth Meers. Meers was working at the Root-N-Scoot supermarket when he was shot during a botched robbery in 1992.

In a phone call from Oklahoma State Prison, Littlejohn said his accomplice, Glenn Bethany, pulled the trigger.

“The next thing I knew, Mr. Meers was walking down the hall holding what looked like a gun,” Littlejohn said. “So I ran and went out the door. The next thing I heard was a gunshot.”

Littlejohn said he was outside the store when the gun went off and ran across the street.

“I thought someone was shooting at me, but it was Bethany shooting around the store,” Littlejohn said.

He and Bethany were later arrested and charged with murder. Bethany received a life sentence without parole, while Littlejohn received the death penalty. He exhausted all appeals in 2018.

Death Penalty Action is now fighting for a pardon for Littlejohn and said witness statements support Littlejohn’s claims.

“We have evidence pointing to Glenn Bethany as the shooter,” said Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood of Death Penalty Action. “How can we execute someone when we know that two people were convicted of the crime and only one person was sentenced to death?”

A pardon hearing for Littlejohn is scheduled for August 7, 2024. Until then, the group is urging the governor or Attorney General Drummond to stop the death sentence.

Drummond sent News 4 the following statement on the case: “Emmanuel Littlejohn is an unrepentant killer who deserves neither public sympathy nor mercy. Littlejohn was convicted by a jury of his peers and that verdict has been upheld by multiple state and federal courts. He deserves to be executed for the heartless murder of Kenny Meers and my office will do everything in its power to ensure justice is served.”