The three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th
Circuit delayed Monday’s scheduled hearing of the Pardon and
Parole Board. The panel was set to meet to consider Kevin
Underwood’s clemency bid.
Two of the board's members have resigned in recent weeks, and
Underwood’s attorneys claim he has a right to a hearing before a
full five-member board. One of Gov. Kevin Stitt's appointees to
the board, Calvin Prince, resigned after coming under criminal
investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for
alleged “inappropriate activities,” according to a letter
Pontotoc County District Attorney Erik Johnson sent to the
state's attorney general. Prince has not been formally charged
with any crime. Another of Stitt's appointees, Edward Konieczny,
also stepped down from the board last month.
Prince’s attorney, Larry Balcerak, didn't immediately respond to
a phone message seeking comment.
“The stay is frustrating but we are proceeding with all legal
avenues to allow the hearing to take place this week and to keep
the execution on schedule," Leslie Berger, a spokeswoman for the
Oklahoma attorney general's office, said in a statement.
The 44-year-old Underwood is scheduled to receive a lethal
injection on Dec. 19 for the 2006 slaying of 10-year-old Jamie
Rose Bolin, who lived in Underwood's apartment complex in
Purcell, Oklahoma.
Underwood admitted to investigators that he killed the girl as
part of a cannibalistic fantasy, although there was no evidence
that any cannibalism took place. The girl's body was found in a
plastic tub in Underwood's apartment, and her head had been
nearly cut off.
Underwood's attorneys don't deny that he killed the girl, but
they claim he suffered from mental illness that included a
“deeply disturbed fantasy life that he eventually acted upon.”
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