broadcasting direct from the heart of russia's capital moscow this is our time certainly glad to have you with us now today's news and the week's top stories libyan of rebels hunt colonel gadhafi after taking over tripoli meanwhile there are fears that the country's a chemical weapons could fall into the wrong hands. north korea is ready to limit nuclear arms testing and production if international talks on security in the region resume the pledge was made by the countries with who said leader kim jong il on a rare trip to russia. and an unmanned russian space ship is missing after crashing

over siberia the progress of vessel was carrying supplies to the international space station when it plummeted back to earth shortly after launch. now it's the debate on capital punishment in the u.s. as we meet the family of a sixteen year old boy who was executed in one thousand nine hundred nine the first part of that special report is coming up next. south of the united states of america oklahoma. this road leads to macalister

penitentiary which houses prisoners contam to death. this is where just twelve years ago i met shone sellers a young man condemned to death his story created a media star all over the world he was my age and i have never forgotten him ever since the night of his execution i have been convinced of the death penalty acts like a poison on all those who participated and that now my aim is to meet all the people up or involved in the execution of sean sellers.

this is where sean sellers spent the last thirteen years of his life. do there are cameras in three. parts in three. football players or are we. ok. sean was twenty nine when this interview took place. with. most of the people around here you know all they see is

here when all they see is the chains and warriors crying. in pain all you can see is this summer's herzog but. someone is killed somebody. is somewhat dangerous. you're the person who did the verses or. i don't blame. he said this is what. the only people who really really. have. to was the media. people want her to believe her story she has one idea now sixteen years old goes we all have a right to hate those legal have a right to it with those legal rights what we did if i ever heard you life was

good. thank you. when he was sixteen shawn murdered his mother vonda and his stepfather leave. their birds here in eastern oklahoma. yes. i found some archive footage on this tragedy of the local t.v. station. one night while vonda and lee were sleeping in the home shown shot them

with his stepfather scum has always claimed that he committed this crime while under the power of an uncontrollable force. when the teenager was arrested he admitted the double murder and confessed to another crime. six months before he walked into a convenience store with an accomplice and shot dead a cashier. he was only fifteen at the time. as accomplice in the convenience store shooting was also arrested richard was shawn's friend and both boys were obsessed with satanism. the two teenagers would

tell the police that they killed the grocer just to see what it would feel like. richard accepted to testify against shown in exchange for a lighter sentence. when this is evidence even shown sellars own confession everything was in place for a trial but the legal system was hesitant should this teenager be judged as an adult fully conscious of his acts. shawn's court appointed lawyer presented as evidence psychological evaluations that diagnosed severe personality disorders in the defendant. but the prosecutor was adamant in demanding the death sentence. think it through a tragedy that in states a sixteen yo when he commits a crime to be.

in one thousand eighty seven sean sellers was sentenced to death and first became the youngest person condemns to death in the united states in the past fifty years . over the thirteen years following his sentencing sean grew up an adult in the macalister penitentiary in these half buried buildings the cells which are underground have no natural light. as the years

pass shaun's lawyers try in vain to get a retrial a. psychiatrist him to have brought to light psychological disorders that were on no one at the time of the trial shown now adults writes books attacking occultism. thousands of letters and maintains correspondence with hundreds of teenagers. when i met him thirteen years after his condemnation get exhausted all legal recourse. are we deliberately. i gave her to the streets to believe. that it's you know. that they could.

three days after meeting sean i sit in on the clemency hearing that takes place in this small chapel near the penitentiary. is jones' last chance to have his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. for life. steve press and shown as new lawyer is working day and night to prevent the execution. the five members of the jury selection by the state governor are to offer

recommendations as to whether or not sean sellers should be pardoned. if in the end a governor makes the decision on his old. activists against the death penalty and friends of sean are present to ask but his life be spared. to me this day. signifies whether we. will grant mercy origin or a mercy. after a railway show. for as long as i have for ten years. all of my years where i should be a great person. and if used in i'd mercy i feel it is justice for you i fear for our state yes just i think it's ok to murder a sixty year old. person. or something first right maybe.

right here fear for what it's go we're not the wild wild west it's time to realize there are better ways to handle this and to execute. experience. storing the rest of the world things. and so on sellers and turning those under your burden no man should ever have to shoulder out of the month since early in life. as you know sean was sixteen years old when he committed these murders that's not to say the song soldiers should not be punished for his crimes sean is. no rational person can deny that each day for the last thirteen years on a slope on a concrete slab just inches from a mild toilet in a wunderlist room smaller than most of our own closets there he spends twenty three hours a day often twenty four and if he's not executed health will spend the rest of his

life in the just such an existence is it better than why you gave his victims many so not no one can credibly argue that a prison that is not punishment sean has been punished is being punished and will be punished. i ask you about clemency if not now when. it's not soldiers who are. on sellers' lives on a dark. that's not death row very dark. on that road leads to finding and. he's going to extinguish on. you. during the hearings the families of the victims get to say their pace.

but parents and children of lee bell a photo shown step father right here to demand that the execution be carried out. among them are lauren and the well at least son and daughter. i heard a guy. just become a father for almost thirteen years but cameras remained stylish allowing just this. and the courts. now after all of us time we are shocked to find ourselves in your presence clinging to you

throughout the. love songs ours to go forward and executed. yes occasional sellers will not bring my father back or monster mother it can never fill the void in my heart. the sellers must be executed for the brutal crime who committed this is a punishment this is not. their content it is a lot of fifteen minutes to play his case. they

are fortunate enough. that i. know something of what you heard her did i know that you. have hurt. another. can imagine. what i say day. because you have been immersed know me whatsoever. no i didn't come here to ask for justice. came here today for mercy.

i don't think you will live with it. i'm not so allusion to that rotten meat that you can cause was. to try in time to keep on going. and this type of hearing the jury does not charge deliberating the verdict is announced directly. at. this time. i'll call on each other. alphabetically.

now. i'll step mother. finally know i'm on this now. this time the clemency hearing for sean sellers his attorney. sean is dead. for the state of oklahoma the case is being closed for a long time. but for all those who witnessed his execution life is going to.

now twelve years later i am going to meet was one of the witnesses of the execution in this nature reserve in the eastern part of the state. if. i think clemency hearing lauren belafonte some of leave belafonte will be executed lauren is a true man of the south he. has always been in favor of capital punishment i didn't decide the punishment you got to remember that other people decided that was his punishment that was a bidding punishment for a crime he committed because i happen to agree with that it is a side subject that's that's.

that's good for me. it. lawrence sister lives in the town of lawton in the center of oklahoma. she also waited thirteen years impatiently for shown to be executed. homa the families of victims have the right to view the execution. and her family came to the penitentiary to watch shawn being put to death. if.

he was struck down to a table with his arms out to his side and they had run an i.v. which was how they were going to. commit the execution it was lethal injection it was altered on through. it was altered intravenously he was prepped and ready to go on lang down and the warden was in there and some doctor and said if you prison guards i believe there was no fear he was happy. it seemed like an x. ray was readily hidden mark and frank perhaps saved came to terms with his fate

he gets a list of everyone who was there attending his execution both for his ghosts in the prison and his family members and the victim's family members did say. it's the only opportunity you're going to have to go see i gotcha here didn't get away with it. now or even i've raised a point where i guess i'd be humanized him and i had to for my own peace of mind i had to look at him for what it was a killer. or as i don't think i've ever gone through.

it was painless for him he didn't suffer he was a slave like an animal like euthanize a dog or a cat but it was actually probably far more humane. noel than lower and realized that the execution would also claim other victims shuns family.

shawn's biological father who had abandoned him when he was two heard about his son's coming execution. he sent him a video message from california. there think go to the future for. certain in terms of if there are thirty day of. how you can get back there hurt or. think i could almost have the. honor of where you stay want of to do this. lucky i'm talking to you or this this or to communicate with me i care i can't stand the way. i love you which they would really if it. could buy.

the execution was a terrible ordeal for shawn's grandfather jim saunders father. jim often took care of the little boy when his mother was out on the road. i met jim twelve years ago when i came here the first time it was a few days before the execution. jim had already lost his daughter vonda and now the state was about to put his only ground some to death.

he's still my grades are. they still my grades are. i would love to say it's going to affect me a world where the other when i put him to death row. but i know better. just go short term good set. a good show there's not go wrong at my answer i don't regularly back. you know what was your reaction when i was we just. i just really so we'll. have cruel can you be really. s. only so to came to my. i hated third chance effort. because i live chan. and was always kids me.

as a child i really liked him. and i hated that he i mean he was so. broken and a committee hearing i couldn't bear to think. sean scrammed father died shortly after the execution. the. machine would be soo much brighter if you knew about someone from funds to

impressions. for instance on t.v. don't come.