12 February 2026 :
February 12, 2026 - Oklahoma. Kendrick Simpson, 45, was executed on February 12.
Kendrick Simpson was pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
He received a lethal injection for the Jan. 15, 2006, double murder of two young men named Glen Palmer and Anthony Jones in 2006 in a drive-by shooting after a confrontation at an Oklahoma City hip hop club.
He did not apologize in his last words. Instead, he addressed his five supporters in the witness room.
Simpson did apologize at his clemency hearing. He and his attorneys blamed his actions on post-traumatic stress disorder from being shot himself in 2004 in New Orleans and from fleeing the flooded city after the hurricane.
"I was young and traumatized, ignorant to what was important in life, and compelled by paranoia," he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board in January. "I'm ashamed of my actions. I'm ashamed of the destruction my actions caused. I'm ashamed of being a murderer."
Simpson becomes the 1st person executed in Oklahoma this year, the 130th overall since Oklahoma resumed executions in 1990.
Simpson is the 3rd person executed in the US this year, and the 1,657th since the nation resumed executions in 1977.
