Okla. Inmate Billy Don Alverson to be First U.S. Execution in 2011

OKLAHOMA CITY (CBS/AP) Oklahoma death row inmate Billy Don Alverson is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening for the beating death of a convenience store worker nearly 16 years ago, which would make him the first person to be put to death in the U.S. this year.

Alverson, 39, is one of four men who were convicted of first degree-murder and sentenced to die for the Feb. 26, 1995 murder of 30-year-old Richard Yost, the night store supervisor of a convenience store in Tulsa.

Prosecutors said Yost received 54 blows from a baseball bat and that all four men participated in the savage beating, although Alverson has said he never hit Yost. Yost's beaten body was found bound on the blood-soaked floor of the store's cooler.

Three of Alverson's co-defendants were also sentenced to death and one, 31-year-old Darwin Brown, was executed in January 2009.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 in December to deny clemency for Alverson. If his execution moves forward as planned at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, it would be the first in the U.S. in 2011, according to Kenneth England, spokesman for the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Alverson would be the second inmate executed in Oklahoma with a combination of lethal drugs that includes a sedative commonly used to euthanize animals.

Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said Alverson requested a large pepperoni and Italian sausage pizza and a large Dr. Pepper as his last meal.