The state of Oklahoma still plans to execute a man Thursday despite a parole board voting in favor of sparing his life.
Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board voted in favor of sparing Emmanuel Littlejohn's life in August 3-2 for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner.
Littlejohn's fate is now up to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt who could change his sentence from the death penalty to life in prison without parole, as reported by the Associated Press. The only other time Stitt granted clemency was in 2021 to death row inmate Julius Jones. Stitt commuted Jones' sentence to life without parole just hours before his scheduled lethal injection.
"I'm not giving up," Augustina Sanders, Littlejohn's sister, told AP after the board's vote. "Just spare my brother's life. He's not the person they made him out to be."
Littlejohn, now 52, was 20 when was involved in a robbery that ended with store owner Kenneth Meers, 31, being shot in the face while trying to defend himself, as reported by The Guardian. Littlejohn admitted to participating in the robbery, but maintained that his accomplice Glenn Bethany was the one who shot Meers.
Bethany was sentenced to life without parole, while Littlejohn was sentenced to death.
Littlejohn's legal team argued that there were "inconsistent prosecutions" in his case, and his lawyers brought up Littlejohn's undeveloped brain at the time of the crime as well as his traumatic childhood. Littlejohn's family said that he has grown a lot in prison and has since become a positive role model.
While several jurors have admitted to mistakenly voting for the death penalty because they misunderstood what life without parole meant, Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond has called Littlejohn a "violent and manipulative killer," as reported by The Guardian.
Stitt previously said that he and his staff have spoken with attorneys on both sides, and have also met with the family of the victim.
Littlejohn is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday morning.
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