Nelson, 37, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville, more than a decade after he was convicted of smothering Clint Dobson , a revered year-old pastor and husband, during a botched robbery at an Arlington church. So Nelson is lobbying for himself. While he has long admitted to his role in the robbery, Nelson remains adamant he did not commit the murder, and argues now he is no longer the man he was branded to be at trial: broken, violent, irredeemable.
Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about. Or with:. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Should I be in prison? Polunsky Unit in Livingston, where he has spent the past 12 years on death row. Jeff Hood β a Little Rock, Ark. He noted the modest turnout for Nelson, a Black man with a lengthy criminal history, was a far cry from the attention drawn by Robert Roberson III , a white man with disabilities, whose execution was stayed a month earlier and whose case was debated by lawmakers in the halls of the state Capitol.
Nelson was born and raised in Oklahoma, where he said he spent most of his adolescence alone. For a majority of the week, his older sister was in Sulphur as a student at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf, and his older brother lived with their grandparents. Once at home, Nelson said she physically abused him almost daily. Somewhere along the way, he said, he lost his consideration for others. He described a life that seemed to follow a pattern in the years that followed : A new charge β burglary, theft, aggravated assault β another stint in the justice system, another turn away from a different future.
Nelson was on probation for an aggravated assault charge in February when he was introduced to the two men he alleges carried out the murder that landed him on death row.
The News is not naming either man because a grand jury declined to indict one of them, while the other never faced a murder charge. He told The News he was the lookout that morning, but when more than 15 minutes passed, he went inside to see what was taking so long. Dobson, according to court records, had been beaten, bound and smothered with a plastic bag.
