By Associated Press
Tulsa, OK – Clemency denied Okla. death row inmate
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has unanimously rejected a clemency request from a death row inmate.
The board voted 5-0 Thursday against recommending that the governor commute Donald Ray Wackerly II's death sentence to life in prison. Wackerly is scheduled to die by lethal injection next month.
The 40-year-old Wackerly was convicted and sentenced to death for the Sept. 7, 1996, killing of 51-year-old man during a robbery in rural Sequoyah County.
Wackerly maintains he did not commit the crime.
The victim's body was found Sept. 8, 1996, in his partly submerged pickup truck near Sallisaw. Authorities say he was shot several times in the face and chest with a small-caliber weapon.