"I had received the email three weeks earlier. It explained that I was being invited to participate in a lottery, from which five media representatives would be selected to witness the execution of Tremane Wood in the Oklahoma state penitentiary on 13 November."
"For more than 20 years Wood had been sitting in prison, mostly in solitary confinement. He and his brother Jake, with the help two female friends, had plotted to lure Wipf and a friend, whom they'd met at the Bricktown Brewery in Oklahoma City, to a motel room in order to rob them. But Wipf ended up murdered, with a knife stuck five inches into him."
"My heart was beating. A lottery? So this is how audiences are invited to watch executions in the age of the internet? I had put my name forward as a witness a long time ago, having done some reporting on the death penalty and now keen to learn more about the controversial drugs used in the process but I was still half-hoping I would not have to actually witness a killing."
A media representative was chosen by lottery to witness Tremane Wood's execution on 13 November at the Oklahoma state penitentiary. Wood was convicted for the 2002 murder of 19-year-old Ronnie Wipf and had spent more than 20 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement. Wood, his brother Jake, and two female friends plotted to lure Wipf and a companion from a brewery to a motel with the intent to rob them; the plan resulted in Wipf's murder, with a knife lodged five inches into him. The witness contacted Wood's friends, lawyer, and family and received emails and daily conversations with Wood's mother, Linda, forming a portrait of a man influenced by an aggressive, violent brother who testified at trial.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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