Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denies clemency for death row inmate set for execution July 20
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - In a 3-2 vote Wednesday, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for a death row inmate scheduled for execution July 20.
Jemaine M. Cannon was sentenced to death for the murder of 20-year-old mother of two, Sharonda Clark in February 1995.
State prosecutors say Cannon repeatedly stabbed Clark in the throat and chest at her apartment in Tulsa, leaving her with multiple defensive wounds and severed jugular and carotid artery.
Cannon was staying with Clark after escaping from an Oklahoma Department of Corrections community work center in southwest Oklahoma while serving a 15-year sentence for severely beating an 18-year-old woman in 1990.
Cannon was eventually apprehended in Flint, Michigan.
Cannon maintains that he killed Clark as an act of self-defense, while prosecutors say it was another act in a pattern of violence against women.
Cannon was sentenced to death in 1996.
Advocates say his abusive childhood, PTSD and continued health issues are cause for a different outcome other than execution.
“Jemaine Cannon has endured unspeakable cruelty from those caregivers who were responsible for caring for him,” said Mark Henricksen, attorney for Cannon. “Instead, they tortured him. In prison today, he suffers from an untreatable autoimmune disorder which is rendering his hearing impaired, and has essentially left him blind. To the extent life is a matter of luck, Jemaine has had the worst luck possible. The proposed execution of this human being is obscene.”
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond says Wednesday's decision to carry out Cannon's execution is a step towards justice.
“I am pleased the Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for the monster who brutally murdered Sharonda Clark and deprived her two young children of their mother. Justice will be served when the death penalty is carried out July 20.”
Jemaine Cannon is scheduled for execution July 20, 2023 after a delay in January.