An Oklahoma man was executed by lethal injection yesterday for killing his parents and a store clerk when he was 16.
Sellers shot an Oklahoma City convenience store clerk, Robert Bower, dead on September 5th, 1985. On March 5th, 1986, he shot and killed his parents, Vonda and Paul Bellofatto, while they slept.
His execution was opposed by capital punishment critics, who said it was wrong to put someone to death for crimes committed while still a juvenile.
Amnesty International sent a letter to President Clinton and other leaders on Monday, asking them to stop the execution. It said it was the first time since 1959 that someone had been put to death for a crime they had committed at age 16. The UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, also called for a reprieve.
Sellers was the 15th person executed in Oklahoma since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990, and the second this year.
A convicted murderer who spent his last days taking part in sacred American Indian cleansing ceremonies was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night in Arizona. Darick Gerlaugh (38), who was convicted of killing a handicapped man in 1980 who picked him up while he was hitchhiking, was put to death at the state prison complex south-east of Phoenix.