Oklahoma board denies clemency for man convicted of slayings

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board has denied clemency for a man convicted of killing two Del City hotel workers in 2001. The panel voted 4-1 on Tuesday against the clemency recommendation for 45-year-old Donald Grant. Two members of the panel who rejected clemency noted the particularly heinous nature of the killings. Grant admitted killing Brenda McElyea and Felicia Suzette Smith so that there would be no witnesses to his robbery of the hotel. Both women were shot and stabbed, and Smith was also bludgeoned before she died. Grant’s attorneys argued that he was mentally ill and had suffered brain damage that made him a candidate for mercy.