No clemency for Oklahoman who killed boy

OKLAHOMA CITY, May 12 (UPI) -- Gov. Brad Henry of Oklahoma has denied clemency for a man convicted of the murder of his girlfriend's son, clearing the way for Donald Gilson's execution.

Gilson is scheduled to die Thursday at the state prison in McAlester, KOTV in Tulsa reported. The State Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency by a 3-2 vote last month, saying Gilson should spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"I take all clemency recommendations very seriously and I gave this matter the thorough deliberation it deserved," Henry said. "At the end of my review, I decided that this case did not merit clemency and a commutation of the jury's sentence."

Henry, a Democrat, has commuted only two of the six death sentences in which the state board has recommended clemency since he took office in January 2003.

Gilson was sentenced to death for the fatal beating of 8-year-old Shane Coffman. The boy's body was found in a freezer next to Gilson's trailer in February 1996, and investigators said the boy had been killed about six months earlier.