By The Vanguard Staff
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Oklahoma executed Jemaine Cannon Thursday. On death row since 1996, Cannon, “emotionally and physically abused by both his mother and father, was no longer a threat to society,” charged the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP).
CADP’s Rev. Don Heath—who led a “Don’t Kill for Me” demonstration Thursday in front of the governor’s mansion before Cannon’s death—said, after the killing, “Jemaine Cannon was nearly blind and nearly deaf and was likely to die in less than a year of an auto-immune disease. Executing a sick and dying man is not justice; it is cruelty.”
CADP, after the execution, said it held a silent prayer.
In 2021, Oklahoma resumed its use of the death penalty following a six-year moratorium of abstaining from execution and the state currently holds one of the highest rates for execution in the U.S.
Cannon was currently the sixth inmate on a list of 25 people scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma through 2024.
On Feb. 3, 1995 Sharonda White Clark was found fatally stabbed in a residence in which she was living temporarily with Cannon. Cannon was found guilty by jury of the murder of White and was sentenced to death row in 1996.
However, Cannon has maintained his innocence in the murder of Clark, claiming self-defense which resulted in him “blindly” swinging the knife.
Cannon attempted to get clemency (leniency to reduce his sentence) on June 7 but the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency in a 3-2 vote. Board members Richard Miller, Richard Smotherman and Cathy Stocker voted against clemency and Calvin Prince and Edward Koniecxny voted in favor of clemency.
State Attorney General Gentner Drummond later explained he was pleased by the board’s decision against clemency, calling Clark’s death a “horrific loss” that desperately needs “finality.”
However, following the denial of clemency, several problems with Cannon’s original trial were highlighted, including officials overlooking DNA evidence and Cannon not being allowed to testify.
Cannon had multiple defensive knife cuts on his hands when he was taken into custody, but according to the defense, at the crime scene, law enforcement officers neglected to do DNA analysis for the blood found on the knife used to stab Clark.
The defense claims had Cannon’s blood been found on the knife, this evidence would have been useful in Cannon pleading innocent by means of self-defense.
Additionally, Cannon was not allowed to be a witness in front of the jury and, as a result, there was little evidence for Cannon’s claim to self-defense, said Cannon’s lawyers. According to Cannon, he wished to explain to the jury his side of the story and his actions.
Cannon explained in the clemency packet that a verbal altercation broke out between him and Clark after a neighbor entered the residence, requesting money from them. Clark refused and expressed immense anger toward said neighbor, according to news reports.
Cannon, who had already planned on leaving Clark’s residence that day, began packing up his belongings which angered Clark even more—prompting her to attempt to physically stop Cannon from leaving.
Cannon added that the physical altercation continued, with Clark eventually charging at Cannon with a knife, attempting to stab him. Cannon conceded he eventually managed to get possession of the knife, stabbing Clark out of self-defense for his own safety.
In addition to Cannon’s self-defense claim, Cannon suffered from severe emotional and physical abuse as a child by his mother and stepfather, according to his lawyers.
OK-CADP Chair Heath recently stated, “Jemaine Cannon was physically abused by his mother and stepfather over his entire childhood. He suffers from Complex Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Cannon told a police investigator that he just snapped.”
As a result of the abuse and in addition to suffering from PTSD, Cannon also suffered from Sarcoidosis Stage III which impaired his audio, eyesight, lungs, liver, and spleen while also struggling with asthma, keratoconus, and uveitis, said his supporters.
Heath cited the role of Cannon’s childhood abuse in the case, adding, “It is hard for anyone who grew up in middle-class homes with stable and loving parents to imagine the trauma Mr. Cannon suffered as a child and the role it played in his violent life.”
Cannon, 51, was on death row for 27 years and had not had any reported violent incidents or behavior while incarcerated, said OK-CADP, noting he has close relationships with many of his family members including his mother, grandmother, and other relatives.
