PHOENIX - Arizona's clemency board on Monday declined to recommend that an inmate's death sentence be delayed or changed to a term of life in prison.
The decision came after a long, emotional hearing during which lawyers for both sides cried and the 9-year-old victim's family wept.
The decision marks one of the last steps until death-row inmate Richard Lynn Bible can be executed on Thursday at the state prison in Florence.
Bible, 49, has been on death row since 1990 after being convicted of kidnapping, molesting and fatally bludgeoning 9-year-old Jennifer Wilson of Yuma while she was on vacation with her family in Flagstaff in June 1988. Her naked body was found by hikers three weeks later, hands tied behind her back with her own shoelace and her underwear in a nearby tree.
The clemency board could have recommended that Gov. Jan Brewer delay or stop the execution. But its five board members voted unanimously against either action, calling Bible "the worst of the worst" after hearing arguments from his attorneys, prosecutors, those who investigated the crime, and Jennifer's family.
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Jennifer's parents spoke to the board through tears, asking for Bible's execution to move forward. "I know that if Jennifer had the opportunity to choose life or death, she would have chosen to live," said her mother, Nancy Wilson. "We're here today because that evil creature abducted, brutally raped and brutally murdered our precious 9-year-old daughter Jennifer. He should not be allowed to breathe beyond 11 o'clock Thursday morning."
Jennifer's brother, Adam Wilson, 29, asked the board to "do what's right" and allow the execution to proceed.
"It's been right for the last 23 years," he said. "If you allow people like this to live, why should I have kids some day?"
Bible did not attend the hearing and did not write to the clemency board requesting mercy. He has said that he can't prove himself innocent because he didn't get a fair trial.
Daniel Maynard, Bible's attorney, told the board Monday that hairs found on Jennifer's T-shirt have never been tested, and that the execution shouldn't move forward until that happens.
"Mr. Bible has always contended that he was innocent," Maynard said. "This evidence needs to be tested."
He also insinuated that items including vodka bottles and cigars found with Jennifer's body, which matched items in Bible's car, could have been planted by police.
Prosecutors focused their arguments Monday on the evidence in the case and Bible's criminal history. "The evidence is abundant and overwhelming," Coconino County Attorney David Rozema said. "We wanted to remind you of the fact that the inmate is a very dangerous, depraved and sick individual ... ."
