A Hurricane Katrina evacuee who was put on death row after killing two men in a hail of gunfire in Oklahoma City is scheduled to become the second executioner in the United States this week.
Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Kendrick Antonio Simpson on Thursday, February 12th, for the serial murders of two young men, Glenn Palmer and Anthony Jones, in 2006.
Simpson, 45, is a New Orleans native who fled to Oklahoma in 2005 as a Hurricane Katrina refugee. Simpson’s execution came about a month after an emotional pardon hearing in which the parole board, which will decide his fate, heard from the victims’ families, survivors of the shootings and Simpson himself.
Simpson told the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole that he was “ashamed to be a murderer.” “I don’t make excuses, I don’t blame others, and they don’t deserve what happened to them.”
If all goes as expected, Mr. Simpson will be the third execution in the United States this year, coming two days after a man on death row was executed in Florida in 1989 for the murder of a traveling salesman.
Here’s what you need to know about Simpson’s execution, why he claims he should be spared the death penalty, and how this double murder affected the victim’s loved ones.
When will the execution take place?
The state of Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Kendrick Simpson at 10 a.m. Thursday, February 12, at the state prison in McAlester, about 190 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.
What was Kendrick Simpson convicted of?
On January 15, 2006, Kendrick Simpson loaded an assault rifle into a friend’s car before going to a house party and then going to a club called Fritz’s in Oklahoma City.
While at the club, Simpson passed three men who commented on his Chicago Cubs baseball cap. The men were three close friends named Glenn Palmer, Anthony Jones, and London Johnson.
After thinking about the comment, Simpson returned to the men and told them he was going to “cut them up,” according to court records. That’s the term Simpson used to refer to his rifle or “chopper,” prosecutors said. He left again, but soon returned, holding out his hand to Palmer in a gesture of peace and saying, “We’re cool.” That’s when Palmer punched Simpson in the mouth and knocked him to the floor, according to court records.
Shortly after leaving the club, Simpson and two friends were at a gas station when Palmer, Jones and London arrived in Palmer’s car. Simpson’s lawyers say that, by chance, Simpson thought the men were going to kill him.
Simpson then directed one of his friends to follow Palmer’s car and another to retrieve the gun, according to court records. They pursued Palmer, Jones, and London for more than three miles, and when the car Simpson was in stopped next to Palmer’s car, Simpson opened fire.
After nearly 20 gunshots, Palmer and Jones were dead, but London survived, crouching in the back seat.
Simpson’s friends testified against him at trial, and a jury found him guilty of murder. During the penalty phase, jurors also heard from a man named Hung Pham, whom Simpson punched and shot in the face during a home invasion in New Orleans. Simpson was just 16 years old at the time of the crime and served six years in prison for the crime.
The jury recommended the death penalty for Simpson for killing Palmer and Jones.
Is it played by the monster or the victim?
Simpson’s attorneys and state prosecutors paint two very different pictures of Kendrick Simpson.
His lawyers describe a man who grew up in the 80s and 90s in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, a notoriously violent place where prostitution, drugs and murder were rampant. Simpson’s mother was 16 years old when he was born and became addicted to crack, and his father abandoned him at birth.
“Kendrick’s earliest memories as a child include seeing dead bodies, shootings, stabbings, and other acts of violence on the project grounds,” attorney Emma Rawls told the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole last month.
She said a family member began sexually abusing Simpson when he was 11 years old, and it continued until he was 16. Simpson was the same age he was when he raised two children and went to prison for six years after committing a home invasion shooting.
About a year after he was released from prison, Mr. Rawls said Mr. Simpson was shot in a “vehicle attack” that nearly killed him, suffering gunshot wounds to the leg, chest, abdomen and skull. He was still recovering from the many surgeries he had undergone and was using a colostomy bag when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
By the time she arrived in Oklahoma City, Rawls said Simpson’s life experiences had caused her to suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and was in a state of fear and paranoia. She said this was the perfect setting for Mr Simpson to take action on the night he killed Palmer and Jones.
“I think it’s very easy to remove the humanity of someone by reducing them to a one-dimensional character, like a monster,” she said. “But it refuses to acknowledge the real nuances and facts of a living human being… He’s far beyond what he’s done.”
The state rejected those claims. Brad Clark, general counsel for the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, told the board that Simpson was a “violent repeat offender who repeatedly chose to prey on others.”
“What mercy did he show Glenn and Anthony? What compassion did he show their families?” he asked. “These families have endured unimaginable loss and have now spent nearly 20 years of Christmas, birthdays and other holidays without their loved ones.”
He said the state of Oklahoma reached out to Hurricane Katrina refugees, including Simpson, and they had a chance to make a fresh start.
“He could have chosen a legal path forward,” Clark said. “But he made the choice to corner two unarmed men and attempt to kill a third. His crime was premeditated, cowardly and calculated. Make no mistake, he chased his victims for miles and then pulled the trigger 20 times.”
The parole board narrowly allowed Simpson to serve his sentence, voting 3-2 to deny him pardon.
Kendrick Simpson: “I’m not a monster”
Just before the parole board rejected one of Simpson’s last hopes to avoid the death penalty, he apologized to the victim’s loved ones and London Johnson, a mass shooting survivor who witnessed his friend’s murder.
“I am ashamed that I caused such pain and hurt,” Simpson said. But “I’m not the worst of the worst. I’m not a monster.”
Neither Mr. Johnson nor the victim’s family indicated they would accept Mr. Johnson’s apology. Instead, they talked about their pain.
Teresha Jones, the sister of victim Anthony Jones, said: “My brother’s murder destroyed our entire family’s world.” “When Kendrick Simpson took my brother’s life, he took all of our lives.”
Johnson said she can still watch her friends die that horrific night in Oklahoma City. He tried to save them with CPR, but the wounds were too deep.
“They were my best friends, my brothers…how many endless tears and sleepless nights I saw my friends lying there bleeding and suffering,” he said. “Our hearts will be forever broken.”
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter covering breaking news, cold case investigations and the death penalty for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
