A death sentence has been commuted in Oklahoma for the first time in 35 years. Governor Frank Keating commuted the death sentence of a convicted murderer to life in prison without parole.
Phillip Dewitt Smith had been scheduled for execution on March 8th. He was convicted of killing Mr Matthew Taylor, in Muskogee, in 1983. But the prosecution's star witness later recanted testimony placing Smith at the crime scene.
Mr Keating, a former prosecutor, said the case against Smith was "convincing and it certainly met the legal threshold for conviction" .
But he said there were inconsistencies which came out after Smith's conviction.
He said: "They raise questions in a case without eyewitnesses to the crime or forensics evidence tying the accused to the crime. Therefore, I cannot in good conscience allow the execution of this inmate."
The victim's mother, Ms Opal Taylor, told The Daily Oklahomanshe no longer believes in the justice system when a governor can change the decision of 12 jurors.
"I've begged. I've pleaded. I've cried an ocean," she said. "They don't care what I think. I'm just the boy's mother. It rips my heart out."
Oklahoma has executed 40 inmates since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. More than 700 inmates have been executed in the United States during that period.
PA