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OKLAHOMA (USA): MICHAEL BASCUM SELSOR EXECUTED FOR 1975 MURDER
May 1, 2012: May 1st, 2012: Michael Bascum Selsor, 57, white, was executed in Oklahoma.
Selsor received his death sentence for the Sept. 15, 1975, murder of 55-year-old Clayton Chandler. During a robbery at a convenience store.
In 1976, Selsor was tried by a jury and sentenced to death. Later that year, Oklahoma’s mandatory death penalty statute was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals adjusted Selsor’s sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
Selsor initiated a new round of appeals challenging his conviction and in April 1996, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Selsor's murder conviction. During a retrial in 1998, Selsor was again convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
In the state capital, about 25 people protested in front of the governor's mansion on Tuesday.
The group fell silent a couple of minutes before the scheduled execution time, and about 10 minutes later, they formed a circle to pray. State prison officials say they have enough of one of the drugs — pentobarbital — used in the lethal injection mixture for 1 more inmate. But Gary Allen's April 12 execution was postponed, and no other executions have been scheduled.
Selsor becomes the 3rd man executed in Oklahoma this year and the 99th person since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990, the 18th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1295th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin, McAlester News-Capital, The Oklahoman, 01/05/2012)
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