Oklahoma has scheduled Wendell Grissom's execution for March 20, 2025 for the 2005 murder of Amber Matthews. He was denied clemency by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board on February 5, 2025.

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Call Governor Stitt at 405-521-2342 with the following message:

'Hi. My name is [your name]. I am calling to ask that Gov. Stitt stops the execution of Wendell Grissom on March 20, 2025. We can be safe from people who have committed great harm and hold them accountable without killing them. It is what we do in most cases."

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On November 2, 2002, Wendell drove across state lines into Oklahoma where he picked up a homeless hitchhiker, Jessie Johns. The two became well acquainted and discussed plans to make money through robberies or burglaries. The next day, they drove through a rural Oklahoman county, looking for a house to burglarize. Eventually, they settled on the house of Matt and Dreu Kopf. After parking in their driveway, Wendell told Jessie to wait in the car until the shooting had ceased, then come and help him burglarize the property. Wendell found Dreu Kopf, her friend Amber Matthews, and two minor children inside the house. After shooting his way in, he seriously injured Dreu, and shot Amber. Dreu managed to escape using Wendell’s vehicle, which Jessie had momentarily left to investigate the scene. After her escape, Wendell and Jessie fled in a vehicle stolen from the Kopf’s garage and were arrested shortly after. Amber died on her way to the Oklahoma City Hospital.

Wendell’s defense team argues that there were several mitigating factors, including neurological deficits, which contributed to the crime and which they were not able to use during the trial – most significantly, brain damage and alcohol and drug dependency. Three jurors, who had initially sentenced him to death, wrote letters saying that they wished this information had been available to them before they had made that fateful decision. Juror Deborah Givens wrote that she no longer feels confident in her decision to sentence Wendell to death.

Wendell’s defense team argues that there were several mitigating factors, including neurological deficits, which contributed to the crime and which they were not able to use during the trial – most significantly, brain damage and alcohol and drug dependency. Three jurors, who had initially sentenced him to death, wrote letters saying that they wished this information had been available to them before they had made that fateful decision. Juror Deborah Givens wrote that she no longer feels confident in her decision to sentence Wendell to death.

On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied him clemency.

Oklahoma's aggressive execution schedule marks it as an outlier in its use of the death penalty while the majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions. In the last few years, Oklahoma has been one of only a handful of states that have carried out death sentences - and it continues to do so targeting the poor, the mentally ill and people of color.

This particular execution is just one in a series of 25 executions scheduled by Oklahoma in the coming months, despite serious concerns around the state's lethal injection protocols and drugs.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Stitt and the Pardon and Parole Board to do everything within their power to ensure this execution does not go forward, and to seek a path to clemency in the case.