Killer Is Executed in Oklahoma
Oklahoma authorities, ignoring a parole board recommendation that the death sentence be commuted, executed a man Thursday for killing a woman while trying to steal her television set.
Bobby Joe Fields, 39, died three minutes after prison authorities injected him with a dose of lethal chemicals at the state’s death row facility here, prison spokesman Jerry Massie said.
Fields pleaded guilty to the 1993 murder of Louise Schem, 77, in Oklahoma City.
Fields was stealing Schem’s television set when she confronted him with a gun. He grabbed the gun and shot Schem in the head.
Fields argued that the gun went off by accident while he was struggling with the woman.
Newly elected Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat, denied Fields’ bid for clemency last month, despite a recommendation by the state’s pardon and parole board that Fields’ sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole.
Fields’ execution was the second in Oklahoma this year and the 57th since the state resumed executions in 1990.
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