Parole board delays clemency hearing until 4 p.m. Monday

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- Just a day before he is scheduled to be executed, a condemned inmate awaited word Monday on whether the state Pardon and Parole Board would save him from state-sponsored death.

The Pardon and Parole board delayed hearing the clemency plea of Loyd Winford Lafevers for several hours Monday so that the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could hear an appeal by Lafevers. The hearing was to begin at 4 p.m. Monday.

The appeals court rejected Lafevers' appeal shortly after 3 p.m.

The same court refused to give him a stay of execution last week.

Attorney general's office spokesman Charlie Price said delaying the hearing is not required by law, but was the practical thing to do.

"That way we can get that decision and both attorneys will have time to read the opinion and digest it," Price said.

Lafevers is scheduled to be executed Tuesday night at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

His attorneys are hoping Gov. Frank Keating will issue a stay of execution in the case if the clemency hearing doesn't go Lafevers'

way.

Last week, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Lafevers' motion for a stay of execution, but the pending appeal Monday was separate from that.

Lafevers, 35, was convicted along with Randall Cannon of the 1985 murder of an 84-year-old Oklahoma City woman. She was kidnapped from her home, placed in a car trunk and taken to a remote area where she was raped, beaten and set afire.

Cannon remains on death row.

Lafevers was scheduled to die last March, but a federal appeals court granted a stay of execution so new DNA evidence could be examined. In July, an Oklahoma court ruled the DNA was insufficient to overturn his conviction.