This story was produced in partnership with The Frontier.
Gov. Kevin Stitt has granted parole for Wayne Thompson, who was 15 when he murdered his sister’s abuser.
Thompson, now 58, has spent more than four decades behind bars for the 1983 killing of Charles Keene, his sister Vickie’s ex-husband, in Grady County.
Cindy Welch, another of Thompson’s three sisters, started crying Monday when she got word Thompson’s release had been approved.
“I can’t explain how happy this makes me,” Welch said. “Wayne has been given a chance at freedom and he’s gonna show the world he deserves it.”
The release is contingent on Thompson’s completion of a six-month transitional program through the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
After his release, Thompson plans to live with the mother of a childhood friend and find work, Welch said. She said she hopes her brother will be home by the end of November.
The Frontier and KOSU reported last year on Thompson’s decades-long efforts to win parole.
Thompson was originally sentenced to death by lethal injection, but his sentence was overturned in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling which held that executing someone under the age of 16 is cruel and unusual punishment. Thompson’s death sentence was commuted to life with the possibility of parole.
Thompson has been going up for parole periodically since the mid-1990s, but he has never been successful. The last time he made it this far in the process was in 2003, but Gov. Brad Henry did not sign off on his release.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board rarely recommends parole for people convicted of violent offenses. During the 12-month period ending last June, the board recommended parole for 11% of people convicted of violent crimes.
Thompson hasn’t had a chance to talk directly to the board for the past 15 years. People convicted of violent crimes are only allowed to appear before the board if they pass an initial, cursory evaluation of their case.
A person’s chance of being granted parole jumps to 82.4% if they make it to the second round of review.
The board denied Thompson’s release for years because of the “nature of his crime.”
He called the process “death every three years.”
The board recommended Thompson for parole with a 4-1 vote in January. Board member Kevin Buchanan said he believed Thompson had served enough time in prison and would not be a danger to the public.
“The facts that brought him here will never change," Buchanan said. “We need to stop looking at 1983 to decide our vote.”
Madison Boone represented Thompson during his latest parole hearing. She’s an attorney for Project Commutation, an Oklahoma-based nonprofit that provides legal representation to people in the criminal justice system.
She said she has been checking every day to see whether Stitt signed off on his release.
“I hope he’s just able to live his life as a free man, reconnect with his family members,” Boone said. “I’m super excited for him.”
Boone said they are applying for commutation for Thompson’s co-defendant and older brother, who she hopes will be reunited with his family too.
Thompson’s older brother Anthony Mann, 59, was also originally sentenced to death for his involvement in Keene’s murder. He was resentenced to life without the possibility of parole after a second trial. Thompson maintains that Mann tried to talk him out of killing Keene and did not take part in the murder.
