Oklahoma inmate faces last day on earth

MCALESTER, Okla., May 13 (UPI) -- Oklahoma authorities say Donald Lee Gilson is on schedule to be executed this week for the 1995 beating death of an 8-year-old boy.

Gov. Brad Henry rejected an appeal for clemency on Monday, starting the countdown to administration of the lethal injection Thursday evening at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

The Oklahoman said the execution was originally scheduled for May 5 but Henry granted a stay after the Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency.

Gilson was sentenced to death after his 1998 conviction in the beating death of Shane Coffman. The victim's skeletal remains were found in a freezer behind Gilson's home in Newalla.

Shane and his three siblings were routinely beaten and denied food by Gilson and their mother, Bertha Coffman, The Oklahoman said. The siblings said their mother told them Shane ran away in 1995 shortly after they had seen him lying badly injured in the bathtub.

Bertha Coffman is serving a life sentence.