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oklahoma
Facing Death Penalty, Tremane Wood Granted Surprise Last-Minute Reprieve
"I'm so, so grateful for everyone who fought so hard and diligently to save my son," said his mother. "For the first time in months, I'm able to breathe."
Nov 13, 2025
Tremane Wood's family members and death penalty opponents welcomed Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's decision to grant clemency on Thursday morning, just minutes before the 46-year-old was set to be executed by lethal injection for a murder his late brother admitted to committing.
"After a thorough review of the facts and prayerful consideration, I have chosen to accept the Pardon and Parole Board's recommendation to commute Tremane Wood’s sentence to life without parole," the Republican governor said in a statement. "This action reflects the same punishment his brother received for their murder of an innocent young man and ensures a severe punishment that keeps a violent offender off the streets forever."
"In Oklahoma, we will continue to hold accountable those who commit violent crimes, delivering justice, safeguarding our communities, and respecting the rule of law," he continued.
Wood has spent over two decades on death row since the 2002 botched robbery in Oklahoma City that ended Ronnie Wipf's life. Both the victim's mother and survivor Arnold Kleinsasser opposed Wood's execution.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, at Wood's clemency hearing, his attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves, said that "the compassion and the mercy that the victims in this case have extended to Tremane, rooted in their life-affirming Christian values and in their recognition that we have all fallen short, is nothing short of transformative."
"Mrs. Wipf and Arnold are showing Tremane—and in fact, are showing all of us—that even when irreparable harm has been inflicted, there is a path forward beyond vengeance, a path forward that is instead paved by forgiveness, by compassion and by mercy," the lawyer added.
Stitt—who had faced mounting pressure to spare Wood—said Thursday that "I pray for the family of Ronnie Wipf and for the surviving victim, Arnie; they are models of Christian forgiveness and love."
The governor's decision came after the US Supreme Court declined to halt Wood's execution. Since taking office, Stitt has granted clemency in a death penalty case only one other time: In 2021, he reduced Julius Jones' sentence to life without parole amid concerns that he may be innocent.
The Julius Jones Institute celebrated Stitt's move in a social media post with allied groups, writing that "God moved, and Tremane will not be executed. His sentence has been changed to life without parole! Thank you to everyone who stood with him every call, every email, every share, every prayer. You showed up, and it mattered."
"Our heart is with Tremane and his family as they finally exhale after these heavy weeks. My heart is also with Ronnie Wipf’s mother, who showed courage and compassion in believing Tremane should live," the post continues. "This is a moment filled with relief, gratitude, and deep emotion. And as we hold space for Tremane’s family, we also continue standing in faith for Julius."
The Julius Jones Institute still intends to hold a prayer vigil at 6:00 pm local time on Thursday at OKE City Community Church.
"I'm so, so grateful for everyone who fought so hard and diligently to save my son," Wood’s mother, Linda Wood, told HuffPost. "For the first time in months, I'm able to breathe."
Death Penalty Action said that "Gov. Stitt waited until the very last moment—absolutely torturous for all involved—but we are grateful for this decision. Tremane LIVES. Sending our love to all involved and those who know and love him."
Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform thanked the Pardon and Parole Board for "its rigorous review and moral clarity in recommending clemency," as well as the governor. The group's executive director, Mike Shelton, said that Stitt "took the time to carefully consider the troubling questions surrounding this case."
"Today, Oklahoma got it right, not just because of a single decision, but because thousands of community members made their voices heard," Shelton added. "Their collective courage and engagement were instrumental in bringing attention to the need for justice."
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Oklahoma Threatens Public Schools' Accreditation Unless They Set Up Turning Point USA Chapters
State school superintendent Ryan Walters said public high schools across the state must partner with late activist Charlie Kirk's organization to counter "woke indoctrination."
Sep 25, 2025
Public high schools in Oklahoma are being ordered to partner with Turning Point USA, the right-wing group founded by activist Charlie Kirk—and threatened with being stripped of their accreditation if they don't comply.
Ryan Walters, the state's superintendent of public instruction, released a video address on Tuesday saying that "every Oklahoma high school will have a Turning Point USA chapter."
"For far too long we have seen radical leftists with the teachers unions dominate classrooms and push woke indoctrination on our kids," Walters said in the video posted to social media.
The state-mandated chapters of "Club America," Turning Point's high school program, will ensure students "understand American greatness" while enabling them to "engage in civic dialogue and have that open discussion," said Walters, who also announced on Thursday that he would resign to join the nonprofit anti-union group Teacher Freedom Alliance.
Turning Point has claimed that since Kirk was fatally shot earlier this month at a debate event the group was holding at Utah Valley University, it has received a “massive surge of inquiries to start new chapters” of Club America—but Walters has evidently seen fit to threaten schools if they don't partner with the organization despite the reports of organic interest.
He told reporter Paige Taylor of KOKH FOX 25, "We would go after their accreditation, we would go after their certificates, they would be in danger of not being a school district if they decided to reject a club that is here to promote civil engagement."
Since Kirk's killing, Walters has focused intently on rooting out teachers and school administrators who have not displayed mourning for the activist. On September 17, his office said it had received hundreds of reports of schools and educators displaying "vile rhetoric promoting the killing."
The press release listed 224 reports of "defamatory comments" as well as 30 reports of schools "not observing a moment of silence" and three of schools refusing to fly their flag at half staff.
Kirk mobilized young conservatives and engaged in debates on college campuses regarding abortion rights, immigration, and other political issues. At events and on his podcast, he promoted the white supremacist view that a "great replacement strategy" was underway via immigration policy and claimed "prowling Blacks" target white people with violence in cities.
Walters has spent much of his time as state superintendent pushing for Oklahoma's public schools to include Christian and right-wing beliefs in their teachings—calling on schools to display a video of him praying, procuring President Donald Trump-branded bibles after mandating biblical lessons, screening teachers for liberal viewpoints, and pushing for high school social studies teachers to include debunked conspiracy theories about "election fraud" in the 2020 election in their lesson plans.
After Walters announced his plan to mandate the establishment of Turning Point USA chapters at high schools, a number of observers noted that the superintendent has presided over a school system that is ranked 50th nationwide in terms of education quality.
"And now all high schools will have political propaganda clubs," said progressive organizer Melanie D'Arrigo, "while banning books like To Kill a Mockingbird because it's 'indoctrination.'"
Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that Ryan Walters announced his resignation.
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Oklahoma Screening Teachers From California, New York for 'Radical Leftist Ideology'
"This MAGA loyalty test will be yet another turnoff for teachers in a state already struggling with a huge shortage," said American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.
Aug 20, 2025
Teachers from California and New York seeking work in Oklahoma will be required to pass an "America First Test" designed to weed out applicants espousing "radical leftist ideology," the state's public schools chief affirmed Monday.
Oklahoma—which has a severe teacher shortage, persistently high turnover, and some of the nation's worst educational outcomes—will compel prospective public school educators from the nation's two largest "blue" states to submit to the exam in a bid to combat what Superintendent for Public Instruction Ryan Walters calls "woke indoctrination."
"As long as I am superintendent, Oklahoma classrooms will be safeguarded from the radical leftist ideology fostered in places like California and New York," Walters said in a statement Monday.
Walters told USA Today that the test is necessary to vet teachers from states where educators "are teaching things that are antithetical to our standards" and ensure they "are not coming into our classrooms and indoctrinating kids."
However, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten warned in a statement Monday that "this MAGA loyalty test will be yet another turnoff for teachers in a state already struggling with a huge shortage."
The exam will be administered by Prager University—also known as PragerU—a right-wing nonprofit group which, despite its name, is not an academic institution and does not confer degrees.
While all of the test's 50 questions have not been made public, the ones that have been published run the gamut from insultingly basic—such as, "What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?"—to ideologically fraught queries regarding the "biological differences between females and males."
PragerU's "educational" materials are rife with false or misleading information regarding slavery, racism, immigration, the history of fascism, and the climate emergency. Critics note that the nonprofit has received millions of dollars in funding from fossil fuel billionaires.
PragerU materials also promote creation mythology over scientific evolution and attack LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender individuals, calling lifesaving gender-affirming healthcare "barbaric" while likening its proponents to "monsters."
In one animated PragerU video, two children travel back in time to ask the genocidal explorer Christopher Columbus why he is so hated today. Columbus replies by asserting the superiority of Europeans over Indigenous "cannibals" and attempting to justify the enslavement of Native Americans by arguing that "being taken as a slave is better than being killed."
Closer to home, PragerU's curriculum aligns with so-called "white discomfort" legislation passed in Oklahoma and other Republican-controlled states that critics say prevents honest lessons on slavery, the Jim Crow and civil rights eras, and enduring systemic racism.
The law has had a chilling effect on teachers' lessons on historical topics including the 1921 Tulsa massacre, in which a white supremacist mob backed armed by city officials destroyed more than 35 city blocks of Greenwood, the "Black Wall Street," murdering hundreds of Black men, women, and children in what the US Justice Department this year called a "coordinated, military-style attack."
Responding to Oklahoma's new policy, University of Pennsylvania history professor Jonathan Zimmerman told The Associated Press that "instead of Prager simply being a resource that you can draw in an optional way, Prager has become institutionalized as part of the state system."
"There's no other way to describe it," he said, adding, "I think what we're now seeing in Oklahoma is something different, which is actually empowering Prager as a kind of gatekeeper for future teachers."
Oklahoma is not the only state incorporating PragerU materials into its curriculum. Florida, Montana, New Hampshire, and Texas have also done so to varying degrees.
Weingarten noted Walters' previous push to revise Oklahoma's curriculum standards to include baseless conspiracy theories pushed by President Donald Trump that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election. Walters also ordered all public schools to teach the Bible, a directive temporarily blocked by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in March. The court also recently ruled against the establishment of the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school.
"His priority should be educating students, but instead, it's getting Donald Trump and other MAGA politicians to notice him," Weingrarten said in her statement.
Cari Elledge, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, called the new testing requirement "a political stunt to grab attention" and a distraction "from real issues in Oklahoma."
"When political ideology plays into whether or not you can teach in any place, that might be a deterrent to quality educators attempting to get a job," she added. "We think it's intentional to make educators fearful and confused."
California Teachers' Association president David Goldberg told USA Today that "this almost seems like satire and so far removed from my research around what Oklahoma educators need and deserve."
"I can't see how this isn't some kind of hyper-political grandstanding that doesn't serve any of those needs," he added.
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