McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed Wendell Grissom on Thursday for the 2005 fatal shooting of Amber Matthews during a home invasion and robbery. Grissom, 56, was put to death by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester at 10:13 a.m. This marks Oklahoma’s first execution of 2025.
Grissom, along with his co-defendant Jessie Floyd Johns, was convicted for the murder of 23-year-old Matthews and the wounding of her friend, Dreu Kopf, during a robbery at Kopf’s Blaine County residence. While Johns was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Grissom was sentenced to death.
The crime occurred when Grissom and Johns, who were driving west on Interstate 40, randomly targeted Kopf’s home. Matthews was visiting the residence when she was shot twice in the head and left to die. Kopf, severely wounded but able to flee, managed to get help before authorities apprehended Grissom and Johns.
Despite his guilt being uncontested, Grissom’s attorneys argued that he suffered from brain damage, which was never presented to the jury. However, his request for clemency was denied by the state’s Pardon and Parole Board.
Amber Matthews’ family and Kopf, the survivor, provided testimony during the clemency hearing. Kopf shared the lasting emotional and physical scars she carries, including bullet fragments still in her body, and described the heightened fear she lives with to this day.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond described Matthews’ death as a “textbook” case for the death penalty, emphasizing the brutality of Grissom’s crimes.
This execution is Oklahoma’s 128th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to state prison records.
