An Oklahoma death row inmate set to be executed next month told USA TODAY in an interview that he empathizes with the family of the victim in his case but maintains that he was not the triggerman and that his life should be spared.
If Emmanuel Littlejohn could speak directly to the family of the victim, Kenneth Meers, he said he would ask for forgiveness.
"I know how they feel but please forgive me," he said in an interview with USA TODAY. "I feel their pain every day."
Littlejohn will get to plead his case to avoid the execution chamber on Wednesday, when he is expected to address the the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. Meers' family members also will get to address the board with how they feel.
Littlejohn was convicted of murdering Meers, a 31-year-old convenience store owner, during a robbery turned shooting. Littlejohn has accepted responsibility for his role in the robbery but has always said his accomplice was the one who fired the single shot.
"I accept responsibility for what I did but not what they want me to accept responsibility for," Littlejohn said. "They want me to accept that I killed somebody, but I haven't killed somebody."
Lawyers for Littlejohn presented evidence to the board that jurors in a 2000 resentencing trial did not fully understand the sentencing option of life without parole and that the sentence was an outlier for robbery murder when he was originally sentenced.
Littlejohn has been at the center of a clemency campaign led by anti-death penalty activist the Rev. Jeff Hood, who has witnessed seven executions in various states.
"I believe Emmanuel wasn't the shooter but on a very basic level, before the parole board, you got ambiguity," Hood told USA TODAY in an interview. "I believe that the district attorney and the prosecutors created a situation where it should be impossible to execute someone because you aren't sure that the person that you're executing is the actual shooter."
The board would have to recommend Littlejohn for clemency, and then Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt would have to grant it.
Stitt has only granted clemency once during his five years in office and lifted a moratorium on executions in the state in 2020, saying it was time "to deliver accountability and justice to the victims who have suffered unthinkable loss and pain.”
The Oklahoma Attorney General's office issued a statement against clemency for Littlejohn last week, saying that he "exhibited selfishness, entitlement and extremely violent behavior throughout his life."
"Emmanuel Littlejohn is a violent and manipulative criminal who refuses to take responsibility for his actions,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in the statement. "The family of Kenny Meers has waited 32 long years for justice to be served. The death penalty is the appropriate punishment, and I urge the Pardon and Parole Board to ensure that justice is done."
Both Littlejohn and Hood objected to Drummond's characterization of him.
"Selfish, entitled − excuse me but I don't get no entitlement to nothing," Littlejohn said. "I'm not entitled."
"They say the same thing every time: there's no humanity, this person is a monster, this person killed," Hood said in an interview with USA TODAY. "To say that about Emanuel Littlejohn is absolutely absurd."
Kenneth Meres' brother, Bill Meers, testified during a 2000 resentencing trial, calling the death sentence, "justice" in response to a taunting statement from Littlejohn after the original death sentence was handed down.
Littlejohn said he understands what Meers' family must be feeling.
"I've had someone kill my cousin and her baby. They were put on death row and I wanted him to be executed," Littlejohn said. "So I understand their emotions and I pray for them. But I didn't kill their son."
Littlejohn was one of two robbers who took money from the Root-N-Scoot convenience store in south Oklahoma City on June 19, 1992. Littlejohn was then 20.
Kenneth Meers, 31, was killed by a single shot to the face as he charged at the robbers with a broom. Witnesses differed on who fired the gun. Clemency activists for Littlejohn point to witnesses that said the "taller man" was the shooter, referring to Meers' accomplice, Glenn Bethany.
"This is not a clear case," Hood told USA TODAY previously. "This is a case where we have a number of issues, a number of problems."
Bethany was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1993.
Littlejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1994. A second jury in 2000 also voted for the death penalty at a resentencing trial. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the resentencing because of improper testimony from a jailhouse informant.
Central to Littlejohn's appeal was a claim of prosecutorial misconduct. His attorneys complained the same prosecutor argued at the first trial that Bethany was the shooter and then argued at the subsequent trial that Littlejohn was the shooter.
"It has long been established that prosecutors may not violate fundamental principles of fairness," one attorney told a federal judge in 2005.
"This is a basic situation in which (the state) got the verdict they wanted with Littlejohn, and they didn't get the verdict they wanted with Bethany," Hood said.
That complaint was repeatedly rejected on appeal. The Court of Criminal Appeals found in 1998 that the prosecutor did not act improperly "given the uncertainty of the evidence."
A federal judge in 2010 found the prosecutor made no outright assertions that Bethany was the shooter at the first trial but instead told jurors that it was their task to determine whether Bethany was guilty of being a participant in the murder or pulling the trigger.
The judge noted that in Littlejohn's trial the prosecutor went further and adamantly asserted that he was the actual shooter.
Littlejohn's execution is currently set to be executed on Sept. 26.
"How can you kill someone and you are unsure that somebody has killed someone?" Hood said. "It's very clear that they're not sure, because they're not saying that in statements. All they're saying is, he's a remorseless killer."