Clemency hearing for Oklahoma child killer to move forward Monday • Oklahoma Voice

OKLAHOMA CITY – A clemency hearing for a child killer will be held as planned Monday.

U.S. District Judge Charles B. Goodwin on Sunday denied a request from Kevin Ray Underwood’s attorneys that a full five-member Pardon and Parole Board hear his request for clemency or issue an execution stay.

Underwood’s original clemency hearing was set for Dec. 4, but was canceled after two Pardon and Parole Board members resigned.

After a protest from Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a new hearing was set for Monday.

Gov. Kevin Stitt late Friday announced he had appointed Tulsa attorney Susan H. Stava to replace H. Calvin Prince III, one of the two who resigned, bringing the board’s contingent to four out of five members.

Underwood is set to die Dec. 19 by lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester

He was convicted for the 2006 suffocation of Jamie Rose Bolin, 10. Her partially decapitated body was found in a plastic tub in his Purcell apartment.

He had planned to rape and cannibalize her body, according to public documents.

A federal court hearing was held Friday on his request for the full board to hear his clemency request or be granted a stay of execution, but Goodwin did not rule at that time.

Underwood’s attorneys said he had a better probability of obtaining the three necessary votes with five board members as opposed to fewer. He also argued that one of his attorneys and a mental health expert could not be there physically. His metal health expert, however, could testify by video conference.

The state argued that state law did not prescribe that five members be present. They said that other clemency hearings have been conducted without five members.