OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: A man who killed a woman in 1995 will be put to death on Thursday, July 20. Jemaine Cannon will reportedly be given a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester at 10 in the morning. This came after a clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board in June, where he reportedly claimed to be “deeply disheartened.”
The 51-year-old said at the time, as per Associated Press, “I am deeply disheartened that the act of defending my life and the acts that she initiated against me ever happened,” before adding, “The ending of human life was never desired, planned or premeditated.”
Besides, Cannon's lawyer Mark Henricksen slammed the execution, noting, “Mr Cannon has endured abuse and neglect for fifty years by those charged with his care. He sits in his cell as a model prisoner. He is nearly deaf, blind, and nearing death by natural causes. The decision to proceed with this particular execution is obscene.”
Who is Jemaine Cannon?
Cannon is a murderer, who claimed the life of the 20-year-old mother-of-two Sharonda Clark at an apartment in Tulsa in January 1995. At the time, he was living with her after fleeing an Oklahoma Department of Corrections community work center. He had already been serving a sentence of 15 years for sexually assaulting and beating an 18-year-old woman using a claw hammer, iron, and kitchen toaster in 1990.
Clark reportedly suffered three stab wounds in the neck. Besides, “her carotid artery was severed, and her jugular vein was cut,” The Oklahoman reported. Her daughter Mazurennae responded to news of Cannon's imminent execution. She reportedly said, “Relief for my family, relief for my sister's pain, relief for my grandmother that didn't make it to see this day.”
‘Cannon had a difficult childhood’
Meanwhile, a petition was earlier launched to block the execution. Action Network had said, “Like so many of those who end up on death row, Cannon had a difficult childhood. This does not excuse his crime, but offers context and space for mercy.”
It continued, “Oklahoma's aggressive execution schedule marks it as an outlier in its use of the death penalty while the majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions,” before alleging, “In the last few years, Oklahoma has been one of only a handful of states that have carried out death sentences - and it continues to do so targeting the poor, the mentally ill and people of color.”
The petition also added, “Please sign the petition asking Governor Stitt and the Pardon and Parole Board to do everything within their power to ensure this execution does not go forward, and to seek a path to clemency in the case.”
