Clemency Hearing Set For John Grant, First Oklahoman Scheduled For Execution Since 2015

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied John Marion Grant's request for clemency for a second time.

Grant's clemency hearing began at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Kate Barnard Corrections Center. 

He is the first of seven men scheduled to be executed in the next five months. His execution date is set for October 28. 

That will make him the first lethal injection since Oklahoma put executions on hold in 2015. 

Grant was sentenced to death in 1998 for the deadly stabbing of Dick Conner Correctional Center employee, Gay Carter. 

Grant's attorney Sarah Jernigan said they aren't claiming Grant is innocent, they're only fighting to get him off death row. 

Jernigan said Grant lived his childhood in state run institutions, plagued by abuse, before being sent to prison at 17 years old due to a robbery conviction. 

Now at 60 years old, both Grant’s attorney and others argue that abuse, and Grant's deep remorse, could be grounds for clemency.

"He has served 48 years in jail. He is now 60 and nearly blind. He just wants to die in peace," said Don Heath from the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Grant's attorneys want the pardon and parole board to allow him to spend the remainder of his life in prison.