Republican Kevin Stitt commutes Tremane Wood’s death sentence to life in prison for 2002 murder of Ronnie Wipf

• After a controversial trial, an Oklahoma man makes a final plea to avoid execution

Tremane Wood, the 46-year-old death row inmate who faced execution on Thursday in Oklahoma, has had his life spared just minutes before he was set to receive a lethal injection.

Kevin Stitt, the state’s Republican governor, accepted the Oklahoma pardon and parole board’s recommendation that Wood’s sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. It is just the second time during Stitt’s nearly seven years as governor that he has granted clemency.