Oklahoma executes the man who killed a woman 20 years ago in a home invasion and robbery

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Oklahoma executes the man who killed a woman 20 years ago in a home invasion and robbery

2025-03-21 01:47 Last Updated At：01:52

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma man who fatally shot a woman during a home invasion and robbery 20 years ago apologized to the victim's family before he was executed Thursday, remorse a woman wounded in the attack said was sincere but came too late.

Wendell Grissom, 56, was declared dead by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester at 10:13 a.m. It was Oklahoma’s first execution of 2025.

“It took him a total of 13 minutes to die, and it took him a total of two minutes to kill my best friend,” said Dreu Kopf, who was shot multiple times by Grissom but managed to flee the home.

Grissom and a co-defendant, Jessie Floyd Johns, were convicted of killing of Amber Matthews, 23, and wounding Kopf at Kopf’s Blaine County residence. Johns was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“I apologize to all of you that I've hurt,” Grissom, bearded and wearing a grey prison uniform, said while strapped to the gurney, an IV line affixed to his left arm. “I regret so much that I've put that hatred in your heart for me.”

Grissom said he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the killing and asked the victims' family to forgive him.

“I pray that you all can forgive me,” he said. “Not for my sake. For your sake.”

A minister prayed at Grissom's feet as the lethal drugs began to flow. He exhaled forcefully several times and could be heard snoring when a doctor entered the execution chamber and declared him unconscious about five minutes later. He appeared to stop breathing at 10:09 a.m. and the color started to drain from his face.

More than two dozen of Matthews' friends and family witnessed Grissom's execution.

Three other executions were scheduled this week around the United States. Louisiana put a man to death Tuesday using nitrogen gas for the first time as it resumed executions after a 15-year hiatus. A man who kidnapped and murdered his girlfriend’s ex-husband in Arizona was executed Wednesday by lethal injection. Another lethal injection is scheduled Thursday in Florida.

Prosecutors said Grissom, who had a lengthy criminal record, picked up Johns, who was hitchhiking, and the two men were driving west on Interstate 40 when they decided to commit robberies. They randomly selected Kopf's home near Watonga, where Matthews was visiting Kopf and her two young daughters.

Matthews was shot twice in the head and left clinging to life on the floor as Kopf, also shot twice and seriously wounded, managed to flee in Grissom's truck to get help, prosecutors said. Grissom and Johns also fled, on a stolen four-wheeler, but quickly ran out of gas and were captured after hitching a ride to a cafe in a nearby county.

Authorities found Kopf's daughters still inside the home, physically unhurt. Matthews died after being flown by helicopter to an Oklahoma City hospital.

Kopf and her daughters, now 19 and 20, also witnessed Grissom's execution.

Grissom’s attorneys did not dispute his guilt but argued at a clemency hearing that he suffered from brain damage that was never presented to a jury. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board denied Grissom’s request to recommend clemency.

Grissom's attorneys told the board he always accepted responsibility and wrote an apology to Matthews' family during his first interview with police.

"He cannot change the past, but he is now and always has been deeply ashamed and remorseful,” said Kristi Christopher, an attorney with the federal public defender's office.

Christopher said his legal team did not pursue a last-minute appeal, per Grissom's request.

Kopf told the board that she still carries deep mental and physical scars from the attack, including bullet fragments still in her body. In the years since the attack, she said, she has called 911 when the doorbell rings unexpectedly or a stranger appears in her neighborhood.

“I lived in a heightened state of fear at all times,” she said tearfully.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has called Matthew's killing a “textbook” death penalty case.

“The crimes committed by Grissom, random, brutal attacks on innocent strangers in the sanctity of their own home, are the very kind that keep people awake at night,” Drummond said during last month's hearing.

Grissom's lethal injection is the 128th execution by the state of Oklahoma since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976, state prison records show. It was the first since Kevin Underwood was executed in December.

This story has been corrected to show the IV was affixed to Grissom's left arm, not his right arm.

Detained Istanbul mayor faces second day of questioning as protests over his arrest intensify

2025-03-23 02:56 Last Updated At：03:02

ISTANBUL (AP) — Hundreds of supporters gathered in front of an Istanbul courthouse on Saturday, where detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu faced further questioning over allegations of corruption and terror links. His arrest this week intensified political tensions and sparked widespread protests across Turkey, with demonstrators rallying in multiple cities to voice their opposition.

Police questioned Imamoglu for around five hours on Saturday as part of an investigation into allegations of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported. A day earlier he was questioned for four hours over the corruption accusations. The mayor rejected all charges during both interrogations.

He was later transferred to a courthouse for questioning by prosecutors along with some 90 other people who were also detained with him.

The authorities barred access to the courthouse using barricades on local roads and closing nearby metro stations. Hundreds of police officers and over a dozen water cannon trucks were deployed. Still, hundreds gathered in front of the building shouting: “Rights, law, justice!”

Crowds also began to rally outside the city hall for a fourth night in a show of support to the mayor.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya posted on social media that 343 suspects had been detained in protests in major cities on Friday night, adding “There will be no tolerance for those who seek to violate societal order, threaten the people’s peace and security, and pursue chaos and provocation.” The cities listed included Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Konya and Edirne.

Imamoglu, who is a popular opposition figure and seen as a top challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on Wednesday following a dawn raid on his residence over allegations of financial crimes and links to Kurdish militants. Dozens of other prominent figures, including two district mayors, were also detained.

Many view the arrest as a politically driven attempt to remove a popular opposition figure and key challenger to Erdogan in the next presidential race, currently scheduled for 2028. Government officials reject accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkey’s courts operate independently.

His arrest has ignited protests that have steadily increased in intensity.

On Friday, police in Istanbul used pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets to push back hundreds of protesters who tried to break through a barricade in front of the city’s historic aqueduct while hurling flares, stones and other objects at officers. Police also dispersed groups that had rallied outside of the city hall for a third night running, after the opposition Republican People’s Party leader, Ozgur Ozel, delivered a speech in support of the mayor.

Simultaneously, police broke up demonstrations in Ankara, the capital, as well as in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, resorting to forceful measures at times, according to television images. Thousands marched in several other cities calling on the government to resign.

Earlier, Erdogan said the government would not tolerate street protests and accused the opposition party of links to corruption and terror organizations.

The Istanbul governor's office announced it was expanding a ban on demonstrations until March 26 and imposed restrictions on the entry and exit of vehicles deemed to be transporting people “likely to participate in unlawful activities.”

Erdogan on Saturday accused the CHP’s leadership of turning the party “into an apparatus to absolve a handful of municipal robbers who have become blinded by money.”

He also accused it of “doing everything to disturb the public peace, to polarize the nation.”

Imamoglu’s arrest came just days before he was expected to be nominated as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in a primary on Sunday. Ozel has said that the primary, where around 1.5 million delegates can vote, will go ahead as planned.

The opposition party has also urged citizens to participate in a symbolic election on Sunday — through improvised ballot boxes to be set up across Turkey — to show solidarity with Imamoglu.

In a tweet posted shortly before his arrival at the courthouse, Imamoglu urged the public to safeguard the ballot boxes for Sunday’s primary, “Don’t forget: they are very afraid of you and your democratic right to vote.”

In an earlier message, Imamoglu described his arrest as a “coup" and accused the government of exploiting the judiciary and worsening the country’s troubled economy.