Robert A. GattisSMYRNA, Del. (AP/WBOC)- The Delaware Board of Pardons is set to hear a request for clemency from a killer facing a Jan. 20 execution date.
Fifty-year-old Robert A. Gattis was sentenced to death for the 1990 fatal shooting of his 27-year-old ex-girlfriend, Shirley Slay, and has exhausted his state and federal court appeals.
Lawyers for Gattis now are hoping to get his sentence commuted, arguing that the courts have never properly considered the physical and sexual abuse he suffered as a child as factors weighing against the death penalty.
Following a hearing Monday, the pardons board will vote to recommend whether Gov. Jack Markell should commute Gattis' death sentence to life in prison. Under state law, Markell cannot commute Gattis' sentence without a positive recommendation from a majority of the five-member board.
