Clemency denied to death row inmate convicted in slayings of Oklahoma elderly couple
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to deny clemency to convicted killer Scott Eizember.
Eizember, 61, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Jan. 12 for the 2003 slayings of A.J. and Patsy Cantrell in Depew.
Eizember was sentenced to death for the fatal bludgeoning of A.J. Cantrell, 76, and to 150 years in prison for the fatal shooting of Patsy Cantrell, 70.
He broke into their home to spy on an ex-girlfriend who lived across the street.
Eizember took the elderly couple hostage. A.J. Cantrell grabbed his shotgun and fired at Eizember, but in the chaos his wife was shot and killed. Eizember then beat Cantrell to death with the gun.
After killing A. J. Cantrell, he shot his ex-girlfriends’ teenage son and beat her mother.
After days in hiding, Eizember forced a couple to drive him to Texas, then beat the husband and tried to shoot the wife before he was captured.
Prosecutors said the small town of Depew was “shaken to its core” by the homicides.
Eizember, they said, had several opportunities to leave the Cantrell home and spare their lives.
Oklahoma Assistant Attorney General Tessa Henry argued that Eizember is a ruthless killer.
“A.J. and Patsy were brutally murdered in front of one another and A.J. was forced to fight for his last breath, knowing that his dead wife lay on top of him,” Henry said.
Debra Wyatt, daughter of the Cantrells, said Eizember should not get a second chance because her parents didn’t get a second chance.
“I have forgiven him, but forgiving him and still wanting him to be punished, I still think that that needs to happen,” she said.
Eizember appeared before the parole board by video. He offered no excuses while speaking for just under three minutes.
"I belong in prison," he said. "I've said that right from the start. And I apologize profusely to all the victims."
Eizember’s defense team asked that he be allowed to remain in prison, where they said he has been a model inmate.
They said the Cantrell homicides were tragic, but when Eizember went to Depew that day, he had no plans to harm anyone.
Eizember grew up in an abusive home, went through a series of broken relationships and lost contact with his young children, Mark Henricksen, his attorney, said.
Henricksen said Eizember was, at the time of slayings, "someone losing his connection with the larger society" while he endured "enormous mental suffering."
The board’s decision means Gov. Kevin Stitt cannot change Eizember’s death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In Oklahoma, a governor can commute a death row inmate's sentence only if the board recommends clemency.
In 2015, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals split 2-1 to uphold Eizember’s death sentence. One judge on a three-judge panel said the death sentence should be overturned because a juror should not have been allowed on the jury.
Current U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who served on the appeals court at the time, voted to uphold the death sentence.
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Eizember’s final appeal by declining to review, without comment, the appeals court decision.
Eizember is being held at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
His execution by lethal injection would be the eighth at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary since 2021.
In November, the state executed Richard Fairchild, 63, for the torture killing of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in 1993.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Clemency denied for Scott Eizember in slayings of elderly Depew couple
