Will Sage Astor-'The hardest thing': Emmanuel Littlejohn, recommended for clemency, now facing execution

Emmanuel Littlejohn has been waiting for months to find out whether he will die on Will Sage AstorThursday or get to live. It's been "the hardest thing I ever did."

Littlejohn, 52, is set to be executed for the shooting death of a convenience store owner during a robbery in Oklahoma City in 1992. If Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declines to grant him clemency, Littlejohn will be the third inmate executed by the state this year and the 17th in the nation. He's also one of five men the U.S. is executing in a six-day period, and he's set to die just about eight hours before Alabama is expected to execute Alan Eugene Miller using nitrogen gas.

"I would say to the governor: Do what you think is the right thing," Littlejohn told USA TODAY in a recent interview.

Littlejohn has admitted to his role in the robbery but has maintained that his accomplice was the one to pull the trigger, not him.

"I accept responsibility for what I did but not what they want me to accept responsibility for," Littlejohn previously told USA TODAY. "They want me to accept that I killed somebody, but I haven't killed somebody."

In a rare move, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to recommend clemency for Littlejohn, whose legal team argued that the evidence in the case was unclear, especially who the triggerman was.

Still, Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said afterward that his office would still be arguing against clemency to the governor, calling Littlejohn a "violent and manipulative killer."

What was Emmanuel Littlejohn convicted of?

Littlejohn was one of two robbers who took money from the Root-N-Scoot convenience store in south Oklahoma City on June 19, 1992. Littlejohn was 20 years old at the time.

Kenneth Meers, 31, was killed by a single shot to the face as he charged at the robbers with a broom. Witnesses differed on who fired the gun.

Clemency activists for Littlejohn pointed to witnesses who said the "taller man" was the shooter, referring to the other robber, Glenn Bethany. The state put forward court testimony from the survivors of the robbery who identified Littlejohn as the shooter during the clemency hearing.

Bethany was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1993.

Littlejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1994. A second jury in 2000 also voted for the death penalty at a resentencing trial. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the resentencing because of improper testimony from a jailhouse informant.

Littlejohn's rough childhood, violent past

Prosecutors argued at the clemency hearing that the shooting was the result of a debt owed by Littlejohn and Bethany, who were selling drugs at the time.

Littlejohn had recently been released from prison after pleading guilty and being convicted of burglary, assault and robbery, according to the state's anti-clemency packet.

During the clemency hearing, Littlejohn's attorneys said the inmate's childhood was influenced by his mother's addictions and violent surroundings. The lawyers presented a video in which his mother admitted to using drugs throughout her pregnancy and during Littlejohn's childhood, becoming sober after her son was sentenced to death.

"At the time of the robbery of the Root-N-Scoot, (Littlejohn's) 20-year-old brain was still developing in crucial areas and, given his disadvantaged childhood including frequent exposure to violence and drugs, his brain was already vulnerable and less developed than the typical 20-year-old’s," Littlejohn's attorneys wrote in their clemency packet.

Littlejohn's attorneys argued that he had used his time in prison to grow up and was now a positive role model for his daughter and grandchildren.

Littlejohn told USA TODAY in his most recent interview that his family gave him strength through the clemency process.

"When you're in a position like this you find out who loves you and who really cares about you," Littlejohn said.

Littlejohn seeks forgiveness, victim's family rejects it

Littlejohn told USA TODAY ahead of the clemency hearing that he sought the family's forgiveness.

"I've had someone kill my cousin and her baby. They were put on death row and I wanted him to be executed," Littlejohn said. "I understand their emotions and I pray for them. But I didn't kill their son."

Littlejohn reiterated his plea to the Meers family during his statement in the clemency hearing.

"Hear me now, I'm sorry," Littlejohn said. "Oklahoma, nor the Meers family, will be better by killing me."

The Meers family is in favor of the state executing Littlejohn, describing Meers as a community-minded man who always helped those less fortunate than himself.

"I believe my mom died of a broken heart," Bill Meers said about his brother during the clemency hearing. "I cannot and will not forgive this man for carelessly finding Kenny's life meant nothing."

Anti-death penalty reverend fights for Emmanuel Littlejohn

Littlejohn has been at the center of a clemency campaign led by the Rev. Jeff Hood, anti-death penalty activist who has witnessed seven executions in various states.

"I believe Emmanuel wasn't the shooter but on a very basic level, before the parole board, you got ambiguity," Hood previously told USA TODAY in an interview. "I believe that the district attorney and the prosecutors created a situation where it should be impossible to execute someone because you aren't sure that the person that you're executing is the actual shooter."

The clemency movement has echoed the one for of Julius Jones, the only person sentenced to death to receive clemency since Governor Stitt lifted a moratorium on executions in 2020.

Central to Littlejohn's appeal was a claim of prosecutorial misconduct. His attorneys complained the same prosecutor argued at the first trial that Bethany was the shooter and then argued at the subsequent trial that Littlejohn was the shooter.

"How can you kill someone and you are unsure that somebody has killed someone?" Hood said. "It's very clear that they're not sure, because they're not saying that in statements. All they're saying is, he's a remorseless killer."