conviction upheld

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man who allegedly stabbed a prison cafeteria worker to death. <br/><br/>The appeals court

Sunday, July 18th 2004, 10:20 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man who allegedly stabbed a prison cafeteria worker to death.

The appeals court ruled yesterday that it found nothing that would cause it to overturn its earlier decision in the case of John Marion Grant.

Grant was convicted of first-degree murder for the November 1998 fatal stabbing of Gary Carter, a worker in the cafeteria at the Dick Conner Correctional Center near Hominy.

Grant appealed on grounds that defense attorneys should've allowed his family to testify in the sentencing phase about his childhood.

The U-S Supreme Court vacated a Maryland death row sentence last year on similar grounds and Grant's case back to the appeals court.

The appeals court noted that in the Maryland case, the defendant had no prior criminal history, unlike Grant, who's been incarcerated since 1980.