State Pardon and Parole Board denies clemency for Jimmy Slaughter

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ A state board has denied clemency for a man accused of killing his former girlfriend and her daughter in 1991. <br/><br/>The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously denied

Tuesday, February 15th 2005, 12:54 pm

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ A state board has denied clemency for a man accused of killing his former girlfriend and her daughter in 1991.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously denied Jimmy Ray Slaughter's request for clemency at a hearing Tuesday morning in McAlester.

Slaughter, 57, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on March 15.

Slaughter is accused of fatally shooting Melody Sue Wuertz and their 11-month-old girl, Jessica, and then mutilating Wuertz's body, prosecutors said.

Slaughter has said he was in Kansas at the time of the killing. Prosecutors allege he and his girlfriend were feuding about child support payments after a paternity test confirmed Slaughter was the child's father.

Prosecutors also argued that a hair found at the crime scene matched a hair from one of Slaughter's co-workers in Kansas and that he left it while committing the murders. Defense attorneys said DNA testing of the hair showed that not to be true.

Attorney Robert Jackson said new DNA evidence conducted on a hair found on one of the victims doesn't connect Slaughter with the crimes, a theory that prosecutors argued during Slaughter's original trial.