Convicted murderer Jemaine Cannon scheduled for execution this week in Oklahoma
Convicted murderer Jemaine Cannon is scheduled for execution Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Cannon, now 51, faces execution for murdering Sharonda White Clark, a 20-year-old mother of two, in 1995 at her Tulsa apartment after escaping from an Oklahoma Department of Corrections community work center in southwest Oklahoma.
A Tulsa County jury convicted Cannon of fatally stabbing White after escaping from the Walters Community Work Center, where Cannon was serving a 15-year sentence for a 1990 attack on an 18-year-old woman who spurned his advances.
That woman was beaten in the head with an iron, a toaster and a hammer, and left permanently disfigured.
Clark’s body was discovered Feb. 5, 1995. She was reported missing after she failed to pick her children up from a daycare center.
More: Oklahoma panel denies clemency for man convicted of woman's 1995 stabbing death
Authorities captured Cannon two days later in Flint, Michigan.
His case drew anger from former Gov. Frank Keating, who at the time blasted the state Corrections Department classification system that allowed Cannon to serve his 15-year sentence for a violent crime in a community setting.
After entering the prison system, Cannon was assigned to a minimum-security prison. Two years later, he was assigned to the Walters Community Work Center.
Corrections officials acknowledged that Cannon should have been at a higher security level but said space in such facilities already was filled.
Investigators said Cannon had been staying with Clark since his escape from the Walters work center.
Cannon has maintained his innocence. He claims Clark attacked him with a knife and he acted in self-defense. Her injuries included three stab wounds in the neck. Her carotid artery was severed, and her jugular vein was cut.
In June, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted against recommending clemency for Cannon.
State Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who urged the board to deny clemency, called Clark’s murder “shocking” and a “horrific loss.”
“It’s time for finality in this case,” Drummond told the board.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Jemaine Cannon scheduled for execution this week in Oklahoma
