Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond files an emergency petition to compel the state Pardon and Parole Board to meet tomorrow to determine the clemency claim for convicted murderer Kevin Underwood.

 

The board announced last Friday that it would delay this week's scheduled hearing after two of its members resigned. Drummond filed the petition yesterday, noting that the board would still have a quorum to make a decision in the case despite the departure of the two board members. The state attorney general urged the board last month to reject Underwood's plea for clemency in the case.

 

Underwood was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2006 kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of his neighbor, 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin.

 

Drummond says the Bolin family has waited 18 years to see justice served in the case and that Underwood's sentence should be carried out without further setback.