Oklahoma executes man not objecting to his execution 20 years after capital murder

As detaled in this local article, “Oklahoma carried out its first execution of 2025 on Thursday, giving a lethal injection to a confessed killer who had said in his first interview with police that he wanted the death penalty.”  Here are some of the notable details:

Wendell Arden Grissom, 56, was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. “I consider this a mercy. It’s going to be all right,” he said in his last words after apologizing and asking for forgiveness from “all of you that I hurt.” He did not seek any emergency stays in court and did not speak at his clemency hearing in February. He told Newsweek on Monday, “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in here.”…

Grissom was executed for fatally shooting a woman during a 2005 home invasion in rural Blaine County. The victim, Amber Dawn Matthews, 23, was at the isolated home near Watonga helping a friend, Dreu Kopf, pack for a move the next day. Matthews was shot the first time in the back of the head while holding her friend’s newborn baby, Gracie. She was shot again in the forehead after collapsing to the floor. Kopf also was shot but survived….

The execution was the 16th in Oklahoma since lethal injections resumed in October 2021 after a long hiatus brought about by drug mix-ups and botched procedures. It took only 10 minutes to complete. “This was probably as flawless of an execution that we’ve had in terms of the process,” said Steven Harpe, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ executive director….

The execution was carried out before more than 20 family/victim witnesses, including Kopf, her two daughters, and Matthews’ father. A spiritual adviser from California, Mary Meyer, prayed at Grissom’s feet in the execution chamber.

In his lengthy last statement, Grissom said he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the shooting. “It’s still my fault,” he added. “I’m not who I made myself look like that one day.” He said he did not deserve forgiveness but prayed that “you all can forgive me, not for my sake, for your sake.” He added that “it is the only way you will find God in this.”

With the four executions completed in four states this week, the US has now carried out a total of 10 executions nationwide faster in 2025 than in any year since 2015.  But, this is still a relatively slow pace in recent US history, as there were 30 executions in the US before the end of March in 1999.  It will be interesting to see if the current pace of executions in 2025 continues throughout the year.