In an unprecedented move, Governor Frank Keating granted...

In an unprecedented move, Governor Frank Keating granted clemency to Phillip Smith. Smith, who has been on death row since 1984 and was scheduled to be executed on March 8, will now serve a sentence of life without parole. Smith had been sentenced to death for the 1983 beating death of Matthew Taylor. On March 1, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 in favor of granting a recommendation of clemency to Governor Keating. Keating issued a 30-day stay of Smith's execution on March 2 and extended that stay for an additional 30 days last week.This is the first time in the modern era of Oklahoma's death penalty (ie, since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1977) that clemency has been granted.