WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — An Oklahoma man who was to be executed by lethal injection for a 2002 murder was granted clemency at the last minute on Thursday by the state governor.

Tremane Wood, 46, had been scheduled to be put to death at 10:00 am Central Time (1600 GMT) at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester for the murder of Ronnie Wipf, 19, during a robbery.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency for Wood by a 3-2 vote on November 5 and Republican Governor Kevin Stitt granted it just minutes before the execution was to be carried out.

“After a thorough review of the facts and prayerful consideration, I have chosen to accept the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation to commute Tremane Wood’s sentence to life without parole,” Stitt said in a statement.

“This action reflects the same punishment his brother received for their murder of an innocent young man and ensures a severe punishment that keeps a violent offender off the streets forever.”

Wood’s elder brother Jake, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, confessed to being the one who stabbed Wipf to death.

There have been 41 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2012, when 43 inmates were put to death.

An execution by lethal injection is scheduled to be carried out later Thursday at a state prison in Florida.

Bryan Jennings, 66, a former Marine, is to be put to death at 6:00 pm Eastern Time (2300 GMT) for the 1979 rape and murder of six-year-old Rebecca Kunash.

An execution is also to be carried out on Friday in South Carolina, where Stephen Bryant, 44, is to be executed by firing squad, also at 6:00 pm Eastern Time.

Bryant pleaded guilty to killing three people in 2004, writing the message “catch me if u can” in the blood of one of his victims.

South Carolina has carried out two previous executions by firing squad this year.

Florida has carried out the most executions this year with 15. There have been five each in Alabama and Texas.

Thirty-four of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and five by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.

President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and, on his first day in office, called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”