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.