after launch. 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. the south of the united states of america oklahoma. this road leads to macalister penitentiary which houses prisoners condemned to death.

this is where just twelve years ago i met sean 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 that the death penalty acts like a poison on all those who participate in it now my aim is to meet the people of born volved in the execution of sean sellers.

this is where sean sellers spent the last thirteen years of his life. there were cameras in three. thousand three. hundred stores are we. ok. here. sean was to. the nine when this interview took place. most people around here are you know all the season to throw in all the season chains wars and cry. so.

all you can see is a summer's herzog but. someone has killed somebody. somewhere is dangerous did you with the person who did the person deserves to die. yet. i don't blame the. he said this is why. the only people who really really. have. to want to see me did the people i've heard believe her story is the one i didn't know i was sixteen years old those people have a right to hate me those legal have a right to be angry with me those legal have the right what we did if i ever heard you why do you want me to die.

when he was sixteen shawn murdered his mother vonda and his stepfather leave. their birds here in eastern oklahoma. i found some archive footage on this tragedy at the local t.v. station. one night while vonta and lee were sleeping in their home shown showed them with his stepfather scum. he committed this crime while under the power of an

uncontrollable force. when the teenager was arrested. 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. his accomplice in the convenience store shooting. richard. would tell the police that they killed just to see what it would feel like.

richard accepted to testify in exchange for a lighter sentence. as evidence even. everything was in place for a trial but the legal system was hesitant. to point of. evidence psychological evaluations that diagnosed severe personality disorders in the defendant. but the prosecutor was adamant in demanding the death sentence. tragedy.

in one thousand nine hundred seven sean sellers was sentenced to death and first became the youngest person condemned 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. psychiatrist him to have brought to light psychological disorders that

were on no one of the time of the trial shown now an adult writes books attacking occultism. thousands of letters and maintains correspondence with hundreds of teenagers. when i met him thirteen years after his condemnation here exhausted all legal recourse. to liberal it is here it. came. to the street to believe. that it could.

three days after meeting sean i sit in on the clemency hearing that takes place in this small chapel near the penitentiary. is shown as a last chance to have his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. but. steve presson shows new lawyer is working day and night to prevent the execution. of. the five members of the jury selected by the state governor are to offer recommendations as to whether or not shown seller should be pardoned.

in the end the governor makes the decision on his own. activists against the death penalty and friends of shown our president to ask but his life be spared. to me this day. signifies whether man. will grant mercy or deny mercy and after that knowing sean. first long as i have for ten years. in all of my being he is one should be granted mercy and if he is denied mercy i feel it is justice for i fear for our state yes decide that it's ok to murder a sixteen year old boy killed a person. or something for a crime they've committed if i i fear fear for a walk and scope we are not the wild wild west it's time to realize. better ways to

handle this. experience. go arrest the world based. on sound sellers attorney as i carry a burden no man should ever have to shoulder that a monstrous early human life. as you know sean was sixteen years old when he committed these murders that's not to say that sean sellers should not be punished for his crimes sean is being punished no rational person can deny that each day for the last thirteen years john and slept on a concrete slab just inches from a metal toilet in a windowless 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 held will spend the rest of his life in just such an existence is it better than what he gave his victims many say not but no one can credibly argue that imprisonment is not punishment sean has been

punished is being punished and will be punished. and i ask you about clemency if not now when. not showing sellers who. on sellers was on a dark. desolate death row very dark on that row dining and. please don't extinguish them on. you. during the hearings the families of the victims get to say their pace. the parents and children of lee belafonte shawn stepfather are here to demand that

the execution be carried out. among them on lorna know well at least son and daughter. i'm here to die. just to my father for almost thirteen years my family has remained silent allowing me just those phones and the courts. now after all of those times we are shocked to find ourselves here in your presence clinging to you throughout the deaths. of song sellers to go forward and executed. the execution of sellers will not bring my father back to or my

stepmother. and can never fill the void in my life. those sellers must be executed for the brutal crime he committed this is a punishment this is not nothing. the content is allowed fifteen minutes to played his case. they are to grow bored and how we can behave. that way and by.

the. end of something of what you heard today. after. another. imagine. what i say today. because you didn't have been immersed know me whatsoever. no i didn't come here to ask for justice. came here to beg for mercy.

i don't think you will live with it if. i'm not. so allusion to that i think that i have to make that equals not. have to try out in time when i have to keep on from my. in this type of hearing the jury does not retards deliberate the verdict is announced directly. this time. i will call on each member of the board alphabetically. brackenridge now. i'll step mother at this time ruby

smith. ronald worth. and my that does now. the charm. this time the clemency hearing for sean sellers. says. 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 gone. now twelve years later i am going to meet with one of the witnesses of the execution in this nature reserve in the eastern part of the state.

at the clemency hearing. some of lee bell a photo asked that sean 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 see that's you've got to remember that twelve other people decided that was his punishment that was a fitting punishment for the crime he committed because i happen to agree with it. is a side subject that's that's. that's good for me.

whoa well bellefonte florence sister lives in the town of lawton in the center of oklahoma. she also waited thirty nine years impatiently for sean to be executed. oklahoma the families of victims have the right to view the execution. and her family came to the penitentiary to watch sean being put to death. if.

he was strapped 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 and it was lethal injection that was all done through. it was altered intravenously he was prepped and ready to gallon langen down and the warden was in there and some doctor and. so a few prison guards i believe there was no fear he was happy because it seemed like and that to me it was totally conceivable he didn't like afraid perhaps he'd come to terms with his fate he gets a list of everyone who's there to ending his execution

both. his guests in the prison and his family members and the victim's family members. it's a it's the only opportunity you're going to have to go see i got you here didn't get away with it now worry that i had reached a point where i guess i did humanized him and i had to leave for my own peace of mind i had to look at him for what he was a killer. or as i don't think i could have ever gone through. it was painless for him he didn't suffer he was pretty

like an animal like euthanize a darker cat but it was actually probably far more humane. noel than lauren realized that the execution would also claim other victims sean's family. sean'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. take a good look for sure for. certain major and this is kind of circumstance. i just can't get back there for you personally. i don't think i could almost have the. stable enough to do this. ok i'm talking to you over this this way to communicate with me i can't i can't stand the way. i love you i wish things were different. good buy.

the execution was a terrible ordeal for sean's grandfather jim valdas 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 grandson to death. he's still migraines are. they still were great so. i would

love to say it's not going to affect me one where the other one may put him today or third oh. but i know better. this girl told her mother good. put the show to death or not go bring that man sir i don't regularly where to go reg'lar where. you know where was your reaction when i asked you we just. really thought well. how cruel can you be really. has children came to my. i hated that janice effort. because our live chat. he was always good to me. as a child i really liked him. and i hated that he i mean he was so. broken

at the commissary i couldn't bear to look at. sean's grandfather died shortly after the execution. would be so which brightened if you knew about someone from france to oppression. whose friends don't don't come.

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