McALESTER, Oklahoma (AP) — An Oklahoma inmate has been put to death for killing a man during a knife fight nearly two decades ago, marking the nation's first execution this year.
Forty-nine-year-old Gary Roland Welch was given a lethal injection at 6:10 p.m. Thursday at the state penitentiary in McAlester for the fatal stabbing of 35-year-old Robert Hardcastle in Miami, Oklahoma.
Nearly three weeks ago, Welch attempted suicide by slitting his throat with a smuggled shaving razor. Prison officials and Welch's court-appointed attorney insisted he was sane and understood his fate.
Welch continued to maintain that he only killed Hardcastle in self-defense.
Welch remained defiant at a hearing last month before the state Pardon and Parole Board, telling the board he wasn't "here today crying, begging or sniveling for my life."
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