Oklahoma panel votes to reject clemency for death row inmate

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A five-member Oklahoma board has decided that a man convicted in the shotgun slayings of an elderly couple in eastern Oklahoma in 2003 and sentenced to die should not be spared from the death sentence. The Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to reject clemency for Scott Eizember. The 61-year-old is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Jan. 12 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Eizember’s attorneys did not deny his involvement in the Oct. 18, 2003, killings of A.J. Cantrell and his wife Patsy Cantrell. But they argued that the killings were unplanned and spontaneous and that his life still has value.