"Gattis seeks reprieve: This 'is not who I am'," is by Sean O'Sullivan for the Wilmington News Journal.
Convicted murderer Robert A. Gattis admitted for the first time Monday that he intentionally killed his former girlfriend in 1990. But he also told the Delaware Board of Pardons that they will be putting the wrong man to death if they execute him next week.
"I'm not the Robert Gattis that killed Shirley Slay. That is not who I am now. I am the Robert Gattis who has two sons I love and respect," he said at a hearing Monday at the Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna. "Killing me now would be killing the new guy, not the old guy. The old guy is gone."
The board, a panel of five men, is considering whether Gattis, 50, should die by lethal injection as scheduled on Jan. 20 or whether he deserves mercy and a sentence of life without parole.
And:
If a majority of the five-member board -- which also includes Chancellor Leo E. Strine Jr., Delaware Secretary of State Jeffrey W. Bullock, State Auditor Tom Wagner and State Treasurer Chip Flowers -- recommends a commutation to life, it would then be up to Gov. Jack Markell to decide.
Markell could accept the recommendation and stop the execution or allow it to go forward.
However, if a majority of the board recommends against commutation, Markell would have no power to grant leniency. At most, Markell could delay the execution by 60 days.
As far as anyone on either side can recall, the Board of Pardons has never recommended clemency for any death-row inmate.
AP coverage is, "Delaware pardons board weighs request for commutation from killer facing Jan. 20 execution," by Randall Chase. It's via the Republic.
A man sentenced to die for the 1990 murder of his 27-year-old former girlfriend asked the Delaware Board of Pardons on Monday to spare him from an execution scheduled Jan. 20.
Robert Gattis told the board during a hearing lasting nearly five hours that he was sorry for the killing of Shirley Slay but he hoped officials would spare his life.
"I am not the Robert Gattis who killed Shirley Slay, that's not who I am," said Gattis, 49, insisting he's a changed man.
"Killing me now would be killing the new guy, not the old guy," added Gattis, shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. "The old guy is gone already."
Under state law, Gov. Jack Markell cannot commute Gattis' death sentence to life in prison without parole unless a majority of the five-member pardons board makes that recommendation. Lt. Gov. Matt Denn, the board chairman, said as the hearing opened that the board would make its recommendation on the clemency request to Markell in writing later this week.
Members of Slay's family said they cannot forgive Gattis for her death nor for years of physical abuse they say she suffered at Gattis' hands only to be shot between the eyes at close range on May 10, 1990.
"Maybe one day. Maybe one day," Slay's brother, Walter, told Gattis. "But today is not that day."
"Gattis makes final plea for life," by Jennifer Hayes in the Dover Post.
Defense Attorneys John Deckers and Karl Schwartz argued Monday that clemency should be granted much in part due to the brutal physical and sexual abuse Gattis suffered as a child at the hands of his father and stepfather. The attorneys maintain that evidence of this abuse was never heard by the jury that recommended the death sentence or the judge who imposed it.
“The jury didn’t know that children who were exposed to this kind of physical and sexual abuse have difficulty maintaining intimate, trusting relationships or coping with emotions, stress and anxiety well into adulthood,” Deckers said. “This is not an excuse, but it is an explanation.”
Gattis’ attorneys also argued that their client showed complete remorse for his actions and has since rehabilitated himself.
Chancellor Leo Strine Jr., a member of the Board of Pardons, questioned Gattis and his attorneys profusely about whether the shooting was an accident, which Gattis insisted at trial.
“It was no accident,” Gattis told Board members Monday.
“I’ve tried to change, to be a better man than the man I was when I shot Shirley,” Gattis said as he addressed the board. “I pulled the trigger. I can’t take that back. I can’t change what I did, but I can try to change myself.”
"Condemned killer asks Delaware Board of Pardons to spare his life," by Mark Fowser for public radio station WHYY-FM's Newsworks. Audio is also at the link.
"I've tried to change. I tried to be a better man," Robert Gattis said to the Delaware Board of Pardons, which is considering a request for commutation of his death sentence for the murder of his former girlfriend Shirley Slay more than two decades ago.
Gattis had the opportunity to speak before the board after earlier testimony from his attorneys, religious leaders and relatives. Relatives of Shirley Slay as well as prosecutors were also given the opportunity to speak.
The board is expected to send a recommendation in writing to Governor Jack Markell by the end of the week on the request for clemency. Gattis is currently scheduled to be executed by lethal injection January 20th between 12:01 a.m. and 3:00 a.m.
John Deckers, the defense attorney for Gattis, said the judge and jury that considered the original did not hear the "haunting stories" of Gattis being abused physically and sexually as early as his pre-school years - abuse carried out by his father and step-father. Deckers added that Gattis has shown "complete remorse."
Earlier coverage of Robert Gattis case for clemency begins a the link. A petition for clemency supporters to sign is available at Change.org. More on the case is at the Robert Gattis Clemency website.
Related posts are in the clemency index.
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