OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board rejected clemency for a death row inmate from Tulsa County.
Jemaine Cannon, 51, was convicted in 1996 for the stabbing death of Sharonda Clark in her Tulsa apartment in 1995.
A statement from Oklahoma Attorney Gentner Drummond indicates he has no objections to the outcome of the hearing.
“I am pleased the Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for the monster who brutally murdered Sharonda Clark and deprived her two young children of their mother. Justice will be served when the death penalty is carried out on July 20.”
The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP) said Cannon’s violent behavior was the result of post-traumatic stress brought on by physical abuse he experienced as a child from his mother and step-father.
“It is hard for anyone who grew up in middle-class homes with stable and loving parents to imagine the trauma these men suffered as children and the role it played in their violent lives. We cannot imagine how a normal human being could act that way,” said OK-CADP Chairman Rev. Don Heath.
Sharonda’s daughter, Yeh-Shen, spoke at the hearing.
“There are no words that could be put together to express the amount of grief and heartache her death has caused because no child imagines a life without their parent, however losing my mother changed my entire life,” she said.
Cannon told the pardon and parole board that the attack was in self-defense, but he is sorry.
“Put yourself in my shoes at the moment, in what was going on,” Cannon said. “I didn’t know that I was going to be attacked by Sharonda, you know, it caught me completely off guard.”
He then apologized saying he was remorseful that the situation ever happened.
Drummond said Cannon is the product of his selfish choices.
Cannon currently resides at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He is scheduled to be executed on July 20th.