As a spiritual adviser, Rev. Jeff Hood has witnessed executions in Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Alabama.
His first was at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, on Jan. 12, 2023. Hood initially was banned from the execution chamber because of past arrests and worries he would cause a disruption. Inmate Scott Eizember and Hood sued, and prison officials relented so the execution could go forward. There were no issues.
So far, the death penalty opponent has been at seven executions − six by lethal injection and one by nitrogen gas. His eighth will come on Sept. 26, unless Oklahoma death row inmate Emmanuel Littlejohn gets clemency.
Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in North Little Rock, Arkansas, in a new place after an EF3 tornado destroyed their home last year. He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. His arrests came at what he calls peaceful protests.
He became a Southern Baptist minister in 2006. He said he turned away from that church’s rigid conservatism after a married mentor made a deathbed confession to being gay. He later studied religion at Emory University in Atlanta and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He describes himself now as a priest in the Old Catholic Church.