Oklahoma | Kendrick Simpson first death row inmate scheduled to be executed in 2026

Kendrick Antonio Simpson, 45, is the first man scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma in 2026.

Simpson was convicted more than a decade ago for killing Glen Palmer, 20, and Anthony Jones, 19, after a confrontation at an Oklahoma City nightclub. Another man was wounded. Simpson is said to have fired as many as 25 shots from a semi-automatic rifle at the victims’ car.

He received two death sentences in 2007. Two other men in the car with Simpson made plea deals for 20-year prison terms. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider an appeal that argued Simpson’s lawyer provided ineffective assistance during the punishment phase of his trial.

Simpson’s case will be considered a final time by the state’s Pardon and Parole Board on Jan. 14. The board has the power to recommend that Simpson be spared, and instead spend the rest of his life behind bars. His attorneys plan to ask for mercy because Simpson was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the crime.

In a December letter posted by the ACLU of Oklahoma, Simpson’s attorney said he is “personable and friendly.”

Attorney General Gentner Drummond is urging the board not to recommend clemency for Simpson. He said in a statement that Simpson has never demonstrated genuine remorse and has “repeatedly attempted to evade accountability.”

If the Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency for Simpson, the final decision about whether he lives or dies rests on Gov. Kevin Stitt’s shoulders.

At the end of 2025, Stitt stopped the state from executing Tremane Wood minutes before his scheduled execution. It was a rare move from the Republican governor, who had granted clemency only once before, during the high-profile case of Julius Jones in 2021. He has rejected clemency recommendations for four other men, and a total of 16 men have been executed during his tenure.

Last year, the state executed two people: Wendell Grissom in March and John Hanson in June. Both contributed to the 47 executions carried out nationally in 2025 — the highest number of state-sanctioned killings since 2009.

Twenty-six men and one woman remain on Oklahoma’s death row, according to the Department of Corrections. Two of the executions were stayed by court rulings issued in 2024. Most of the people on Oklahoma’s death row were sentenced more than a decade ago. No Oklahomans have been given the death penalty in court since 2022.

Oklahoma officials only schedule one execution at a time, a change enacted in 2024 following concerns about the rate at which the state was putting people to death.

A total of 23 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have gotten rid of the death penalty altogether. Discussions in Oklahoma have accelerated, with non-partisan and conservative groups calling for an end to capital punishment.

Source: kosu.org, Sierra Pfeifer, January 6, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde