An Arkansas man convicted of killing a Kingfisher woman in a 2005 Blaine County home invasion joins a queue of 20 death row inmates awaiting an execution date after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal.

Without comment Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of Wendell Arden Grissom, 50, who argued he was intoxicated when he shot and killed Amber Matthews, 23, at the home of Drue Kopf near Watonga.

Kopf also was wounded in the home invasion but was able to escape and alert authorities, triggering a lockdown of area schools and a manhunt resulting in the arrest of Grissom and an accomplice.

Grissom was convicted and sentenced to death June 17, 2008, in Garfield County District Court, where the case was tried after Grissom’s attorney successfully argued for a change of venue.

Grissom also was sentenced to life for shooting Kopf with intent to kill, 40 years for possession of a firearm after a felony conviction and 25 years for grand larceny.

No executions have been scheduled in Oklahoma since 2015 after problems with lethal injections in 2014 and 2015.

Nitrogen gas was approved as an alternative execution method last year, but protocols have yet to be developed for its administration.

According to the state Department of Corrections monthly census posted online, a total of 47 inmates are currently on death row, 20 of whom have exhausted their appeals.