The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board on Wednesday recommended that the death sentence of a man whose 2004 conviction was clouded by evidence of inadequate counsel representation, claims of prosecutorial misconduct and racial bias be commuted to one of life without possibility of parole, one week before his scheduled execution.

On a 3-2 vote, the board recommended that Tremane Wood, who was convicted of felony murder in the death of Ronnie Wipf, be spared from the lethal injection awaiting him on Nov. 13, pointing to unfairness in his case. Gov. Kevin Stitt has the authority to grant Wood clemency and commute his death sentence.

In a statement to the press, Wood's current attorney, federal public defender Amanda Bass Castro-Alves, said the board's recommendation "restores public faith" in the ability of the criminal justice system to correct mistakes.

"We are grateful to the board for carefully considering all of the evidence showing that Tremane's death sentence is excessive and is the direct result of a trial lawyer who abandoned him and who failed to give the jury all the information it needed to reach a fair and reliable decision over his punishment," Castro-Alves said.

The governor's office declined to comment Thursday.

Under Oklahoma's felony murder statute, a person participating in a felony crime can be held responsible for a killing resulting from the crime, even without actually intending to harm anyone.

Wood, a biracial white and Black man, was given a capital sentence for the stabbing death of Wipf, a white man from Montana, dur­ing the com­mis­sion of a rob­bery. Wood's brother and co-defendant, Zjaiton ​"Jake" Wood, who later admitted being the person who stabbed Wipf, was sentenced to life in prison, according to a habeas corpus petition Tremane Wood filed in 2011.

Several factors affected those diverging outcomes, starting with the quality of legal representation. Jake Wood had three attor­neys and two inves­ti­ga­tors working on his defense, according to an affidavit by Jake Wood's trial attorney, Wayna Tyner, included in the habeas petition.

Tremane Wood, meanwhile, was only represented by John Albert, an attor­ney who was abusing drugs and alcohol and at the time was handling other capital cases and was severely overworked, according to a 2018 order by the Tenth Circuit denying an en banc rehearing.

The only investigator Albert hired to work on Tremane Wood's defense also worked on his brother's case, according to Albert's affidavit. The mitigation portion of Tremane Wood's defense did not include details about trau­ma and abuse he experienced in his childhood, according to the Tenth Circuit.

Albert later stated in another affidavit included in a 2011 habeas corpus petition that he "could have achieved a better and effective result for Tremane Wood had I been more involved."

At the clemency hearing Wednesday, the state Pardon and Parole Board expressed concern about Albert's representation of Tremane Wood. The board also called out inconsistent positions by his prosecutors regarding who killed Wipf, as well as what Tremane Wood's attorney said were improper jury instructions on the burden prosecutors needed to meet to prove that he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to even be eligible for the death penalty.

The jury foreperson, the only Black person to serve on the jury, later testified at a hearing before the Oklahoma legislature that she felt pressured to return a death sentence.

"We hope Governor Stitt will accept the board's recommendation and agree that clemency is warranted in this case," Castro-Alves said.

Tremane Wood is one of five people who are scheduled to be executed over the rest of the year in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

--Editing by Amy French.