USA; ESEGUITA CONDANNA NONOSTANTE NO COMMISSIONE

WASHINGTON, 18 DIC - Un uomo dell'Oklahoma, condannato per l'omicidio di una guardia durante una rapina nel 1990, e' stato messo a morte martedi' sera, in un carcere dell'Oklahoma, con un'iniezione letale, nonostante una commissione statale avesse raccomandato la sospensione dell'esecuzione, perche' l'uomo si proclamava innocente e non c'erano prove dirette della sua partecipazione al delitto. 

Il governatore Frank Keating ha pero' ignorato la raccomandazione e ha negato la grazia, nonostante si sia di recente pronunciato per ''alti standard di certezza morale'' nel comminare la pena di morte.

Ernest Marvin Carter, 36 anni, era stato condannato per l'uccisione di una guardia di sicurezza di una casa d'aste d'auto, che lo aveva sorpreso mentre rubava un mezzo.

Un suo complice, Charles L. Summers, venne pure condannato e sta scontanto l'ergastolo.

   Carter e' stato la terza persona messa a morte in Oklahoma questo mese e la 55.a da quando, nel 1990, le esecuzioni sono riprese in Oklahoma. 

Oklahoma executes 7th inmate this year

 In McAlester, a man convicted of firing a fatal shot into a night watchman's head so he could steal a $500 tow truck was executed Tuesday night in Oklahoma's death chamber.

 Ernest Carter died at 6:14 p.m. for the 1990 murder of Eugene Manowski, a father of 6 who was working the graveyard shift at a northwest Oklahoma City auction.

 Carter's attorneys failed at a last-ditch plea for his life after Gov. Frank Keating denied the convicted killer clemency. They sent the governor a letter Monday asking him to reconsider last month's unanimous recommendation from the state Pardon and Parole Board to spare Carter's life.

 It was the 1st time in more than 50 years that the board voted unanimously to recommend clemency for a condemned inmate and the 4th time the board recommended clemency since Keating took office in 1995.

 Keating has rejected all but one of those recommendations.

 Carter, who had been fired from the auction for sleeping on the job, crawled through a hole in a fence, cut the lights to the guard shack and killed Manowski so he could steal a wrecker, court records say.

 His co-defendant, Charles Summers, was sentenced to life in prison.

 Summers' girlfriend testified that she drove with the men from Chandler to Oklahoma City the night of the murder and that Carter got out of the car near the auto auction. She claims he came to their home sometime in the middle of the night, saying he had killed a man and the tow truck he stole had broken down on the way back to Chandler. 

Carter and Summers towed the truck, repainted it and eventually burned it.

 Another trial witness, Larry Denson, told jurors Carter told him he "offed" a man so he could steal the wrecker. The governor had state agents interview Denson again before deciding against clemency Sunday.

 Other evidence linking Carter to the murder included muddy footprints at the auto auction that were similar to boots he wore when he was arrested. Also, investigators found .38-caliber shells in Carter's trunk and the guard shack where Manowski was murdered.

 Defense attorney Gary Chubbuck said the case against Carter was circumstantial and did not meet the governor's standard of "moral certainty."

 Death penalty opponents asked Keating to reconsider at a rally Tuesday outside the governor's Capitol office.

 "Mr. Carter is about to be killed by our hands and it shouldn't happen," said Rita Newton, director of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches.

 Carter, 36, has maintained his innocence the last 12 years. He claims he found out about the stolen wrecker when he went to work at Summers' body shop the next morning.

 His last appeal was denied at 3 p.m. At noon, prison guards served Carter, 1 of 106 Oklahoma death row inmates, his last meal.

 Carter becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma, and the 55th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Only Texas (289), Virginia (87), and Missouri (59) have executed more condemned inmates than Oklahoma since the death penalty was re-legalized in America, on July 2, 1976.

 Carter becomes the 71st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA, and the 820th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There are no more executions scheduled this year in the USA.

 The 71 executions are 5 more than occurred last year in America, but still far short of the modern-era record of 98 in 1999. Only the years 2000 and 1997 had more executions than this year, with 85 and 74, respectively, thus making this year the 4th-deadliest year for America's death chambers.

 The pace of executions will possibly be brisk beginning in January, with as many as 8 or 9 likely to be carried out across America, including 6 in Texas and 2 more in Oklahoma.