McALESTER, Okla. — A man who apologized for killing two men in a drive-by shooting after a nightclub altercation was set to be put to death Thursday in the first execution of the year in Oklahoma and the second in the United States.
Kendrick Simpson, 45, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for his convictions in the 2006 killings of 19-year-old Anthony Jones and 20-year-old Glen Palmer, who were fatally shot after a dispute at an Oklahoma City club.
Simpson, who had fled to Oklahoma City from the devastated city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, admitted to the killings during a clemency hearing last month. He apologized to the victims’ families and to a third man who was in the vehicle when Jones and Palmer were shot…