Delaware pardons board recommends commutation for killer facing Jan. 20 execution

Robert Gattis

The state Board of Pardons is recommending that Gov. Jack Markell grant clemency to a man facing execution later this week for the 1990 murder of his former girlfriend.

The state is scheduled to execute Robert Gattis, 49, by lethal injection on Jan. 20.

He asked the pardons board at a hearing last week to recommend that the Democratic governor commute the death sentence he received in 1992 to life in prison without parole.

Markell has declined to say whether he would grant commutation if the board recommended it.

John Deckers, an attorney for Gattis, said he was delighted by the board's decision.

"We're very happy, very pleased with the resolution," Deckers said.

Gattis told the board that he was sorry for killing Slay and that it was not an accident, but that he hoped officials would spare his life.

Under state law, a favorable recommendation from a majority of board members is required for Markell to commute Gattis' death sentence. The board is chaired by the lieutenant governor.

The other members are the state treasurer, state auditor, secretary of state and the head judge of the Court of Chancery.

Gattis has exhausted state and federal court appeals.

His lawyers told the board that commutation was appropriate because the courts have never considered sexual abuse Gattis says he suffered as a child.

Prosecutors questioned the veracity of the sexual abuse claims at the hearing. They also pointed out that Gattis maintained until recently that the killing of Shirley Slay, 27, was an accident.

"I am not the Robert Gattis who killed Shirley Slay. That's not who I am," said Gattis, insisting he's a changed man.

Members of Slay's family said they cannot forgive Gattis for her death, or for the years of physical abuse she suffered at Gattis' hands before he shot her between the eyes at close range.

Full statement from Board of Pardons on Gattis clemency decision

Source: The Republic, January 15, 2012

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