OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 4–1 Tuesday to deny clemency for a man sentenced to die for killing his 9-month-old daughter in 2002, moving him a step closer to his scheduled lethal injection next month.
Attorneys for Benjamin Cole, 57, did not dispute that Cole killed Brianna Cole by forcibly bending the infant backward, breaking her spine and tearing her aorta, but argued that he is severely mentally ill and that he has a growing lesion on his brain that has continued to worsen while he has been in prison.
Cole has refused medical attention and ignored his personal hygiene, hoarding food, and living in a darkened cell with little to no communication with staff or fellow prisoners, his attorneys told the panel….