(NewsNation) — Activists are seeking clemency for an Oklahoma man on death row for the murder of a convenience store owner in 1992.
Emmanuel Littlejohn was convicted in 1994 for his role in the deadly robbery at an Oklahoma City convenience store where store owner Kenneth Meers was killed.
Littlejohn’s execution has been set for Sept. 26, but he has always maintained he did not shoot anyone.
“This is not a clear case. This is a case in which we have a number of issues, a number of problems,” the Rev. Jeff Hood, Littlejohn’s spiritual adviser, said.
Littlejohn says his accomplice, who received a life sentence, was the lone shooter in the incident. Following the shooting, witnesses offered differing accounts of who pulled the trigger, according to The Oklahoman.
Hood and Abraham Bonowitz, Death Penalty Action co-founder, are arguing that lack of evidence pointing toward Littlejohn’s co-conspirator Glenn Bethany makes the scheduled execution an injustice.
“For 33 years, Emmanuel Littlejohn has said that he did not shoot anyone, that he did not kill anyone,” Hood said.
In an interview with USA Today, Littlejohn accepted responsibility for his role in the robbery but maintained his innocence in the murder.
“They don’t want to punish me for what I did do, the robbery and all that,” Littlejohn said. “They want to kill me, and I didn’t kill nobody.”
In response to the plea for clemency, Attorney General Gentner Drummond says he stands by the conviction.
“Emmanuel Littlejohn is a remorseless killer unworthy of the public’s sympathy and undeserving of clemency. Littlejohn was convicted by a jury of his peers, and that conviction has been upheld by multiple state and federal courts. He deserves to be executed for the heartless murder of Kenny Meers, and my office will do everything in its power to ensure justice is served,” Drummond said in a statement.
Littlejohn’s case is set to go before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board on Aug. 8.
Oklahoma has executed 124 people since 1976, the second most in the country since the reinstatement of capital punishment.
