Parole Board Recommends Against Clemency
May 20, 2005 6:33 PM EDT
INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Parole Board voted unanimously Friday against a death-row inmate's request that his execution be delayed so he can donate part of his liver to an ailing sister.

The board recommended that Gov. Mitch Daniels deny Gregory Scott Johnson's request for clemency or a 90-day reprieve from his execution, scheduled for early Wednesday.

Johnson, who was convicted of the 1985 murder of 82-year-old Ruby Hutslar, said he wants time to donate part of his liver to his 48-year-old sister, Debra Otis, who lives in an Anderson nursing home.

Board member Randall Gentry suggested that media attention over the transplant issue had caused some to drift from the basic facts of the case - that Johnson had "admitted to the beating and brutal stomping death of a defenseless elderly lady."

Why does he need a delay? They take organs at the last minute all the time from acident victims and the like. Just take him to the hospital, yank out the liver portion, and then put him back in his cell.

Sounds to me like he really doesn't want to help his sister out unless he gets something out of it. Quite the altruist.

You make an interesting point, could a death row inmate permit the harvesting of his organs immediately before being executed? I assume they are worthless after the chemical pickeling.