Oklahoma Executes Death Row Inmate for 1995 Tulsa Murder

Oklahoma executed Jemaine Cannon, who stabbed a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after escaping from a prison work center. Cannon, who had been serving a 15-year sentence for a violent assault, claimed self-defense but was convicted of killing 20-year-old Sharonda Clark. His last-minute appeal seeking a stay of execution was denied by a federal appeals court. Cannon's attorney argued that his trial and appellate attorneys were ineffective for not presenting evidence supporting his self-defense claim. Prosecutors and Clark's adult daughters urged the state to execute Cannon, while his attorney called the decision "historic barbarism."