Stop the Execution of Robert Gattis

On January 20, 2012, the State of Delaware plans to execute Robert Gattis for the killing of his former girlfriend, Shirley Slay. Mr. Gattis was sentenced to death in 1992. Neither the jury nor the sentencing judge had been provided with material information that, today, would be presented to any judge or jury considering whether to impose a sentence of death. Neither the jury nor the sentencing judge knew that he was the victim of ongoing sexual abuse from his preschool years through adolescence and suffered extreme and sustained physical and psychological abuse during those same years. Experts have characterized Mr. Gattis’s childhood as one “marked by catastrophic abuse and neglect.” We are seeking clemency from the Delaware Board of Pardons and Governor Jack Markell. Upon recommendation from the Board of Pardons, Governor Markell has the constitutional authority to spare Mr. Gattis’s life.

The Delaware Board of Pardons meets on Monday to consider the matter.

There is, in my opinion, something to protest every time an execution date is set for an inmate on death row in this country, not only in the occasional case of possible innocence.

More information on this case and the petition to spare Gattis from lethal injection can be found here.