[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----OKLAHOMA

[Rick Halperin]

May 30



OKLAHOMA----new execution date

Court sets execution date


The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has set a July 22 execution date
for a man sentenced to die for gunning down another man at an alleged
gambling house in 1996.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson's office said the court on Friday set the
execution date for Oklahoma County death row inmate Kevin Young, 42. Young
was sentenced to die for the May 1996 murder of 56-year-old Joseph Sutton.

Prosecutors said Sutton was shot 4 times at a restaurant in northeast
Oklahoma City when Young and an accomplice barged in and attempted to rob
patrons who were playing poker, prosecutors said.

During the sentencing phase of Young's 1st-degree murder trial, jurors
learned that Young was convicted in 1991 in California of 2nd-degree
robbery, shooting into an occupied vehicle and robbery with a firearm,
according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors alleged that Young was a continuing threat to society.

Young was also found guilty of shooting with intent to kill for wounding a
2nd person at the restaurant and of attempted robbery with a firearm.

Another Oklahoma County inmate, Terry Lyn Short, is scheduled to be
executed June 17 for the 1995 murder of 22-year-old Ken Yamamoto in
Oklahoma City.

(source: Associated Press)