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April 17, 2012

Board denies clemency bid

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma death row inmate's plea for clemency was rejected Monday by the state Pardon and Parole, which voted 4-1 against commuting the inmate's death penalty to life in prison without parole.

Michael Bascum Selsor, 56, apologized to family members of 55-year-old Clayton Chandler, the Tulsa convenience store clerk he was twice convicted of killing during a robbery 37 years ago, and reminded board members he had confessed to the crime.

"I didn't pass the blame, I shared the shame," he said during a brief appearance before the board via teleconference from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

"Is it too late to say I'm sorry?" Selsor said. "I am truly sorry for the suffering and damage I have caused."

Selsor said he knows he will die in prison and believes he could be a mentor and friend to young inmates facing lengthy sentences.

"I'll try to be an example for the young guys," Selsor said.

But Chandler's daughters urged the board to not interfere with the death penalty a Tulsa County jury gave Selsor in 1998. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 1.

"I think it's time to put this to rest," said Debbie Huggins, who fought back tears as she and her sister, Cathy Durham, remembered their father and asked board members to deny Selsor's request for clemency.

"When we were growing up, our dad was our best friend," Huggins said.

"I was his little girl," Durham said. She said her father's death had denied him an opportunity to walk her down the aisle at her wedding and get to know his grandchildren.

Huggins said Selsor made a conscious choice when he entered the convenience store where her father worked and repeatedly shot him with a .22-caliber pistol

on Sept. 15, 1975.



Prosecutors say Chandler suffered eight bullet wounds.

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