USA | Death row spiritual adviser, a witness to 9 executions, nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

The Rev. Jeff Hood, a noted anti-death penalty activist and death row spiritual advisor based in Arkansas, has witnessed nine executions in various states. As part of his duties as spiritual advisor, Hood can join inmates in the execution chamber during their last moments on Earth.

When the Rev. Jeff Hood walked into Oklahoma's execution chamber, he found his friend Emmanuel Littlejohn already strapped to a gurney, moments away from death.

When Hood pulled out some anointing oil to bless Littlejohn one last time, the condemned man offered a brief moment of levity in the grim environment.

"Oh Jeff, did you bring me a blunt?" Littlejohn told the spiritual adviser – according to his mother, Ceily Mason, who was a witness to her son's execution. Turning serious, Littlejohn told his mother and daughter he loved them and reassured them: "I'm OK, everything is going to be OK."

Then, Hood asked Littlejohn for forgiveness: "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to stop this."

Then the man condemned to death for the 1992 killing of Oklahoma City shopkeeper Kenneth Meers − for which he maintained innocence until the end − offered absolution to the priest that helped win him hope for clemency.

"Jeff, the only reason we made it this far is because of you," Littlejohn told Hood.

In Littlejohn's final moments, Hood told him: "Go to the love."

Hood has witnessed the execution of nine of "his guys," including the first nitrogen gas execution carried out in the U.S., that of Kenneth Smith in January 2024.

"My job is to come into their lives when they have six to three months left to live and become their best friend," Hood previously told USA TODAY after David Hosier's execution in 2024. "I become their best friend in order to be their best friend when they die."

For his work with death row inmates, Hood has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by David Lemley, a professor of religion at Southern California's Pepperdine University.

"He's putting himself in a position to love 'the least of these,'" Lemley told USA TODAY. "It is peace for peace's sake. It's good for good sake. I think that that's worth awarding."

Death row pastor finds honor in loving condemned

The Nobel Foundation says 338 candidates have been nominated for the 2025 prize, though the list of nominees won't be made public for 50 years.

Lemley told USA TODAY that his nomination asks the Nobel committee to consider a more personal definition of peace than what is commonly associated with the award, such as the nuclear disarmament work of 2024 prize winner Nihon Hidankyo or the efforts of 2016 winner Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to end the country's civil war.

These are people who Jeff is serving to the end of their life. He can't offer them rehabilitation, he can't offer them restoration to society. But you can be the presence of peace to them in their final moments, which often, as we've seen, are really terrifying moments.

"I believe Dr. Hood’s person and work are worthy of the committee’s consideration as an example of bringing both the peace that flows from honoring the dignity of disenfranchised people, and the peace that flows through the channel of one human spirit to another," Lemley wrote in the nominating letter, obtained by USA TODAY.

Hood told USA TODAY that he finds his validation in being there for "his guys" at the end of their lives.

"The greater honor for me is the opportunity to witness God's love flow in and out of the lives of those we marginalize and oppress here in the land of the living," Hood said.

The winner of the prize will be announced in October.

Nobel nominee becomes death row inmates' 'best friend'

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that spiritual advisers must be allowed into execution chambers if death row inmates want them. Since then, the 41-year-old Hood − who is based in Little Rock, Arkansas, with his wife and five children − has made it one of his missions to comfort the condemned in their final weeks, hours and minutes.

Two of his guys are scheduled for execution on June 10: Gregory Hunt in Alabama and Anthony Wainwright in Florida.

"These are people who Jeff is serving to the end of their life. He can't offer them rehabilitation, he can't offer them restoration to society," Lemley said. "But you can be the presence of peace to them in their final moments, which often, as we've seen, are really terrifying moments."

Noa Dubois, the wife of former Texas death row inmate Steven Nelson, said that Hood's guidance was instrumental in her husband's final days.

"When you know you know your time and date of (execution), you start to ask all those questions you know in your in your mind," Dubois told USA TODAY. "'Am I a good person? How can I achieve redemption? Is there hell? Is there heaven?' Jeff was really able to answer all those questions or at least guide Steven through those times of uncertainty."

Nelson was executed earlier this year for the for the 2011 murder of a beloved young pastor, the Rev. Clint Dobson, though he maintained his innocence.

Following the execution Dubois and Hood remained close. She said witnessing his outreach work helped restore her faith in humanity.

"It's proof of understanding and humanity to have the connection with spirituality to put aside people's actions and just still love them and be present for them and help them navigate one of the worst horrible things that this country is doing," Dubois said.

Families say Hood's presence key in healing

As she watched the execution of her son in Oklahoma, Ceily Mason witnessed the toll losing Littlejohn took on Hood.

"I watched Jeff and Jeff bawled. Most ministers, they done been there so much it don't bother them," Mason told USA TODAY. "But I watched Jeff and Jeff bawled, he couldn't take it."

Mason said that Jeff has become part of her family and presided over Littlejohn's celebration of life.

"I tell him all the time: 'God gave you something that you got to deal with, Jeff'" she said. "I don't know if I could do it, but each man gets a chance in Jeff's heart. it doesn't matter if they guilty or innocent, and he knows they (are) innocent or he knows they (are) guilty, he still loves on them."

Both Mason and Dubois spoke to Hood remaining in their lives following their loved ones' executions.

"I think I needed as much help (after Nelson's execution) as he needed and we were both able to provide for each other, which strengthened the bond," Dubois said. "We needed to process this together."

Nomination asks to recognize "suffering work"

Lemley told USA TODAY that Hood's willingness to work with the condemned should be recognized by the Nobel committee as a starting point for building true peace.

"If you can stand with someone who is clearly guilty of something in their final moments and offer them peace, that really says something to those of us who are hoping that people will look up and see the human cost of war, the human cost of immigration policies, the human cost of economic policies and the human cost of the rhetoric behind those things that would suggest that anybody is less than human," Lemley said.

Lemley noted that some of those considered for the Peace Prize are chosen after coming to prominence and that Hood's nomination serves as a counterpoint to them.

"Jeff is not living a fabulous celebrity life because of the public work that he does," he said. "It's a suffering kind of work."

Source: USA Today, James Powell, May 25, 2025

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