By AP
McAlester, OK – Okla. man scheduled for 1st US execution of year
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) An Oklahoma inmate convicted of killing a man during a knife fight nearly two decades ago is scheduled to be put to death by the state of Oklahoma marking the first execution in the U.S. this year.
Gary Roland Welch was convicted of fatally stabbing 35-year-old Robert Hardcastle in Miami, Okla. He is to die by lethal injection Thursday night inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Welch's execution will come nearly three weeks after he attempted suicide by slitting his throat with a smuggled shaving razor, but prison officials and Welch's own court-appointed attorney insist he is sane and understands his fate.
Welch continues to maintain that he only killed Hardcastle in self-defense and has refused to apologize for the slaying.
He was denied clemency last month.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.