Oklahoma carried out its first execution of 2026 on Thursday, putting Kendrick Simpson to death for the 2006 drive-by killings of two men, prison officials said. Simpson, 45, was pronounced dead at 10:19 CST after three drugs were administered during the lethal-injection process at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, according to the officials.
Simpson’s execution came after he admitted to the killings during a clemency hearing last month. In the death chamber, Simpson told his family and members of his legal team, “I love y’all,” and “Thank y’all for being here to support me,” the Associated Press reported. His spiritual adviser, Rev. Don Heath, read Scripture in the chamber during the execution, which lasted about 12 minutes. A doctor entered the room and declared Simpson unconscious about five minutes after the first drugs began to flow, officials said.
Simpson was convicted of killing Anthony Jones, 19, and Glen Palmer, 20, after prosecutors said an altercation at an Oklahoma City nightclub preceded the drive-by shooting. Prosecutors said Simpson and friends followed the victims from a nearby gas station, pointed a rifle out of their vehicle window, and fired about 20 rounds into the victims’ car; both men were shot multiple times.
During the clemency process, Simpson’s attorneys said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from chronic trauma during his childhood growing up in a New Orleans housing project. The attorneys wrote in his clemency application that “Kendrick is a man worthy of your mercy and compassion” and that “The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst offenses and offenders,” adding that they believed his case represented neither. Despite that request, the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board voted narrowly to deny clemency.
The state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, said in a Thursday statement that justice had been served for Jones and Palmer. “Their young lives were taken tragically and far too soon,” Drummond said, adding, “I hope today brings some measure of peace to their families who have endured unimaginable pain for the past 20 years.” Simpson had apologized to the victims’ families and accepted responsibility for the killings during the clemency hearing, and he also apologized to a third man who was in the vehicle when Jones and Palmer were shot.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a late appeal attempting to block the execution, and the court had no comment after the rejection, according to the report. A doctor declared Simpson unconscious about five minutes after the first drugs began, and Simpson was pronounced dead at 10:19 CST, prison officials said.
Palmer’s sister, Crystal Allison, who witnessed the execution, said she was disturbed to see Simpson smiling at his family members while strapped to the gurney. “The same smile that had been tormenting me for 20 years, he still smiled that same smile laying on his deathbed,” she said.
Oklahoma’s execution also came amid a slower national pace for death sentences compared with recent years. The Associated Press reported that Florida carried out a state record of 19 executions in 2025 and that a total of 47 people were executed in the United States in 2025, with Florida leading and Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second place with five each. Florida was scheduled to carry out the next execution in the U.S. on Feb. 24, the planned lethal injection of Melvin Trotter for the killing of a grocery store owner during a robbery.