Oklahoma prepares to execute man for 3-year-old’s killing

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man for the torture killing of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in 1993. Richard Stephen Fairchild is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Attorneys for the 63-year-old argued that Fairchild was abused as a child, is mentally ill and is remorseful for his actions. But the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board rejected his request for clemency last month on a 4-1 vote. Prosecutors say Fairchild, an ex-Marine, began beating 3-year-old Adam Broomhall after he wet the bed, burning him by holding him against a scorching furnace, then throwing him into a table, killing him.