By The Canadian Press

Oklahoma carries out its first execution of 2026 on a man convicted of double killing

Feb 12, 2026 | 8:29 AM

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — A man who admitted to killing two men in a drive-by shooting in 2006 was put to death Thursday in Oklahoma’s first execution of the year.

Kendrick Simpson, 45, was pronounced dead at 10:19 CST following a three-drug injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, prison officials said. He was convicted of killing Anthony Jones, 19, and Glen Palmer, 20, by firing into their car following an altercation at an Oklahoma City nightclub.

“I love y’all,” Simpson said to his family and members of his legal team while he was strapped to a gurney inside the death chamber. “Thank y’all for being here to support me.”

Simpson’s spiritual adviser, the 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.

Simpson, who had fled to Oklahoma City from the devastated city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, admitted to the killings during a clemency hearing last month. He apologized to the victims’ families and to a third man who was in the vehicle when Jones and Palmer were shot.

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Palmer’s sister, Crystal Allison, witnessed the execution and 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.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement Thursday that justice had been served for Palmer and Jones.

“Their young lives were taken tragically and far too soon,” Drummond said. “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 last month’s clemency hearing.

“I don’t make any excuses,” Simpson said at the time. “I don’t blame others, and they didn’t deserve what happened to them.”

Despite his apology, the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board narrowly voted to deny Simpson clemency.

On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court had no comment after rejecting a late appeal to block the execution.

Simpson’s attorneys had argued that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from chronic trauma in his childhood years growing up in a New Orleans housing project.

“Kendrick is a man worthy of your mercy and compassion,” his attorneys wrote in his clemency application. “The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst offenses and offenders. Kendrick and his case represent neither.”

On the night of the killing in January 2006, prosecutors say, Simpson had placed an assault rifle in the trunk of a vehicle he and his friends drove to a club in northwest Oklahoma City. After an altercation at the club between Simpson and Palmer, prosecutors say, Simpson and his friends followed Palmer and Jones from a nearby gas station, and that Simpson pointed the gun out the window and fired about 20 rounds into their car. Both victims were shot multiple times.

The state uses the sedative midazolam, followed by vecuronium bromide to halt breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

Simpson’s scheduled execution was to be the second of the year in the United States. Florida, which conducted a state record of 19 executions in 2025, put Ronald Palmer Heath to death with a three-drug injection on Tuesday for his conviction in the 1989 killing of a traveling salesman he and his brother met at a Gainesville bar.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025, with Florida leading the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second place with five executions each that year.

Florida is 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.

Sean Murphy, The Associated Press