Sean Sellers, who was executed by the state of Oklahoma in 1999, was that state's 15th execution since 1976 and the only person in the post-Furman era to be put to death for a murder committed when he was under the age of 17. His case drew worldwide attention. The details around Seller's early life are unclear--he was born in Corcoran, California on May 18, 1969 but was living with his mother in Oklahoma City when the murder occurred. In 1985, then 16 year old Sellers and his friend Richard Howard talked about what it would be like to kill another human being. On the night of September 8, the two teens walked into a Circle K convenience store and shot dead the store clerk, 32 year old Robert Bower, when he refused to sell them beer for being underage. Howard did not actually participate in the shooting. Sellers told him he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone.
He next decided to poison his mother Vonda, age 32, over an argument about a girl he was dating. Sellers tried to put rat poison in her drinks but failed to kill her. On March 5, 1986 he shot her and his stepfather Lee Bellofatto, age 43, with a .44 revolver as they slept. Clad in only boxer shorts to avoid getting blood on his clothes, Sellers first shot Bellofatto in the head. The noise woke up Vonda, who was immediately shot in the face. Sellers tried to rearrange the crime scene so it looked like a burglar had broken in and killed them. He went to Howard's house and told him he'd killed his parents.
The bodies were discovered some time later and Howard told police what had happened. He was initially charged with being an accomplice to murder but that was later reduced to a 5 year suspended sentence after he agreed to testify against Sellers.
At his trial, Sellers admitted he was into Satanism and that he had been demonically possessed when the murder happened. He also claimed to have read Anton LaVey's "The Satanic Bible." "I got very involved in Satanism. I truly thought it was an honest way to live, and the rituals of it would enable me to control my life." His attorneys also argued that he was addicted to the game Dungeons & Dragons, although Sellers would later write that the game had no part in his crimes and that "using my past as a common example of the effects of the game is either irrational or fanatical."
The jury did not accept his explanation and he was found guilty and the death penalty recommended. Oklahoma law in 1986 did not permit life without parole for capital murder, juries could only select the death penalty or life with the possibility of parole in as little as 15 years (this was changed only a year later). One juror said they voted for the death penalty because they could never be sure that Sellers wouldn't get out on parole and kill again, but the rest of the jury denied this. He also confessed to the murder of Robert Bower, heretofore unsolved.
Sellers had a born-again Christian conversion on death row and numerous friends and activists lobbying on his behalf and because he was 16 when the murders were committed. Most of his relatives did not believe it was sincere, however. He also claimed multiple personality disorder. In its 1999 letter Human Rights Watch noted that the only countries outside the US which executed juvenile offenders since 1990 were Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. He continued appealing right up to his execution date. The execution brought about widespread condemnation from the EU, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the American Bar Association, and Bianca Jagger. Nonetheless the execution by lethal injection was carried out at the state penitentiary in McAlester on February 4, 1999 after a final meal consisting of Chinese take-out. Sellers was the first person executed in the US for a murder committed under the age of 17 since 1959.
The Supreme Court would rule in Roper v. Simms six years later that capital punishment on offenders who were under 18 when the crime was committed violated the 8th Amendment.
>>17804172This wasn't an excuse. We were all edgy 16 year olds once who hated our moms and dabbled in Satanism but we didn't kill three people. No fuck him he deserved what he got.
>>17804170 (OP)>He next decided to poison his mother Vonda, age 32>was 16>his mother was 32>32-16=16Wow way to be fucking trailer trash, honey. But then again it was Oklahoma.
>>17804182>we all dabbled in satanismis the dungeons and dragons to satanism pipeline that strong, how would I get a qt satanist/wiccan gf, how many people would I have to murder to impress her
>>17804211>oklahoma trailer trashExactly, I hate that fucking state, glad I dont live there anymore
>>17804211Not uncommon in parts of the US even today. I know a lot of 50-something grandmothers or mothers of kids old enough to have children
>>17804182>>17804170 (OP)yeah i also remember being 16 and discussing what it would be like to kill someone. never actually did it though because i'm not an actual psychopath.
>>17804211the dad was probably her uncle or cousin so he was likely inbred and screwy as a consequence
>>17804174why exactly do pedos in Belgium and a South African bishop care about an execution in a shithole state on another continent anyway?
>>17804174>Sellers was the first person executed in the US for a murder committed under the age of 17 since 1959.I thought that would have been Bernard Schreiber but he was executed in '56, I don't happen to actually know who this individual was.
>>17804256The death penalty was outlawed in all of Europe except Belarus by then, I think. Executing someone for a crime they committed as a minor would have been particularly egregious.
>>17804256Money grift mostly.
>>17804182>We were all edgy 16 year olds once who hated our moms and dabbled in Satanism
>>17804174>n its 1999 letter Human Rights Watch noted that the only countries outside the US which executed juvenile offenders since 1990 were Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.At this point most of the West had entirely outlawed the death penalty at least during peacetime. The 16 states that carry out executions are still making the US an outlier among the Western countries and wealthy democracies.
most capital punishment using states are in the South and they aren't First World or count as part of America
>>17804170 (OP)>Sellers tried to rearrange the crime scene so it looked like a burglar had broken in and killed them. He went to Howard's house and told him he'd killed his parents.>Howard told police what had happened.No shit. If you're going to pick a story, stick to the story.
>>17804222>how many people would I have to murder to impress herIf you have to ask, you can't afford it
>>17804675I guess he assumed his bff wasn't going to sell out his ass.
>>17804170 (OP)no one should be executed for crimes committed before their 18th birthday.
>>17805068Maybe but that was before the Supreme Court said you can't do that anymore.
>>17804211Shithole states like this are full of high school girls who gets knocked up by a 25 year old redneck and then he dumps her in 2 years when he gets bored of her or doesn't want to deal with being a father.
>>17804172I mean his mom was pretty cute though.
>Sellers was the product of a teenage marriage between Vonda Blackwell and Richard Sellers and was born in California. The marriage fell apart due to Vonda and Richard's youth and immaturity and the latter's drinking problems and she took her son back to her native Oklahoma. She married Paul Bellofatto, who ran a trucking fleet, in 1974 and he adopted Sean as his own child. Paul was short on truck drivers as a result of the post-OPEC economic recession and so Vonda helped her husband out by driving one of his trucks. Consequently Sean was left in the care of his grandparents while Vonda and Paul were often on the road for up to 2-3 weeks at a time. He began kindergarten in fall '74 and had no apparent issues getting along with other children at school.
>Sean reported hearing voices in his head starting at about age 6 which were always making fun of him. In early 1977 the Bellofattos moved back to California. A babysitter there introduced him to Satanism but he decided not to tell his parents for fear he'd get in trouble. The family returned to Oklahoma in the fall and his parents signed on to another trucking fleet so he was returned to his grandparents' care.
>Sean's uncle Jim punished him for wetting the bed by wearing nappies on his head. Vonda and Jim also beat him for bedwetting. During the same time Jim also took Sean hunting and taught him how to clean and butcher animals. Sean did not like hunting and found it disgusting; Jim and Paul made fun of him and called him a sissy. He became transfixed with good and evil, God and the Devil, and by the time the murders happened he had lived in 30 different locations over his life.
>By age 11 he had become a practicing Satanist who bled himself, collected it in jars, and kept them in the fridge, later taking them out to drink, even bringing the blood to school. He favored jabbing sharp objects into his scalp and was voted in a school yearbook as "Most likely to become a vampire." Sean also began using drugs around this time and got into playing Dungeons and Dragons.
>Vonda did not like his D&D habit and sent him to church camp where he fell in love with a girl there and told God he'd do anything if he'd let him have her.
>In 1983, the family moved to Greeley, Colorado and Sean, now 14, was left home alone while his parents were out on trucking runs. Once he considered suicide in a fit of despair and he began attending Satanic Masses around this time. When Vonda and Paul were back on the road the following year, Sean was watched by his Aunt Debbie in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He came to miss Colorado's pretty landscapes and pleasant weather in contrast to hot, flat, and dusty Oklahoma and began drinking to cope with depression.
>By the time Sean was in the 10th grade he was mostly preoccupied with Satanism and made no attempt at finding friends at school. The summer after 10th grade the family spent a few months in Colorado where he reunited with some old acquaintances. There he and friends performed a Satanic baptism and had his first brush with the law when he tried to steal some black cloth from a department store. Due to his young age and it being a first time offense, he was released with no charges filed.
>>17805167>He came to miss Colorado's pretty landscapes and pleasant weather in contrast to hot, flat, and dusty Oklahoma and began drinking to cope with depression.i agree. living in Oklahoma would drive anyone to suicidal despair.
>Before heading back to Oklahoma in the fall, Sean performed another Satanic ritual and pledged his soul to the Devil. Back in the Sooner State, he was reunited with Richard Howard, an old childhood friend who shared his D&D addiction. Richard introduced Sean to new friends who were into Satanism and he declared that he no longer believed in God and that Satan was his new master. While Sean had heretofore done well in school, his grades dropped and he increasingly neglected to bathe or groom himself.
>Vonda forced her son to attend a Bible studies class but it did not dent his interest in Satan. He continued drinking his own blood and began using an abandoned farmhouse for Satanic rituals along with a group of friends. This led up to the murder of Robert Bower at the Circle K convenience store on September 8, 1985--one week prior to this, Sellers and Howard had been in the store and tried to purchase beer but Bowers refused because they were both 16. The murder increased Sellers's fascination with the Devil.
>In early 1986 Sean got a job at a club for teenagers during which time he fell in love with a 15 year old named Angel, but his parents would not let them date so he ran away from home. He next got a job at a pizza restaurant and wrote in school that Satanism made him a better person and that he could kill and feel no remorse. His teacher became concerned by this and told Vonda, who penned a six page letter telling her son how much she cared for him.
>Sean took speed and stayed awake for three days prior to the murders.
>During Sellers's years on death row, he kept a journal and claimed that he'd had a born again Christian conversion. He was considered a model prisoner and well-liked by fellow inmates and prison staff as well as visiting religious workers, but some people including most of his relatives did not believe his conversion was sincere. One guard at the prison considered Sellers manipulative. Sellers was often on Geraldo and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Rachel Leal, a 14 year old acquaintance of Sellers, described at his trial his participation in Satanic rituals. He owned a Satanic Bible, cut himself, drank his own blood, used his blood to draw pictures, and tried to recruit followers into his cult. Leal described how Sellers had earlier tried to poison his mother. She also said that she had over the past three years attended a Satanic Mass at Lake Overholser.
