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USA: PENA MORTE; GOVERNATORE OKLAHOMA RINVIA ESECUZIONE - OKLAHOMA CITY (STATI UNITI),

3 MAR - Per la prima volta negli ultimi 35 anni lo stato dell' Oklahoma ha accordato un rinvio di una esecuzione capitale gia' fissata accogliendo una richiesta di revisione del processo a carico del condannato a morte. Frank Keating, governatore dell' Oklahoma, ha disposto il rinvio di un mese dell' esecuzione di Phillip Dewitt Smith che sarebbe dovuto finire nella camera della morte l' 8 marzo prossimo. L' uomo era stato riconosciuto responsabile di unomicidio compiuto nel novembre del 1983 a Muskogee ed ad accusarlo c' erano le testimonianze di due persone, che, pero', hanno ritrattato le loro dichiarazioni.

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Friday March 2 7:58 PM ETOkla. Governor Grants Stay to Death Row Inmate OKLAHOMA CITY  - Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating granted a 30-day stay of execution on Friday to a man set to be put to death next week for killing a man with a hammer after two key witnesses recanted testimony against him.Keating, a Republican, called for a thorough review of the case of Phillip Dewitt Smith after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 on Thursday to recommend clemency for Smith. It is the first time the board has made such a recommendation in 35 years.``The death penalty should be carried out only when the State is absolutely satisfied that the guilty person is the one who was convicted and sentenced,'' Keating said in a statement.Smith, whose execution was scheduled for March 8, was convicted of murdering Matthew Dean Taylor in Muskogee in November 1983. Police said he beat Taylor to death with a hammer after a drug deal between the two men turned sour.However, a witness who said Smith confessed to the crime subsequently recanted his testimony. Another witness who said he gave Smith a ride to Taylor's apartment also changed his account although he later reverted to his original testimony.Keating said he would seek more information from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board about its recommendation and whether it thinks Smith should be released from prison or have his sentence reduced.In January, Oklahoma executed seven inmates, the most it has put to death in a single month. Anti-death penalty groups called the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board a ``rubber stamp'' agency after it decided not to recommend commuting the death sentence of Wanda Jean Allen, a woman of limited intelligence. She was one of those executed in January. Allen, whose IQ was 69, became the first black woman executed in the United States since 1954 and the first woman put to death in Oklahoma's history as a state.