LAGRANDS SISTER PATRICIA AND FRIEND HICKMAN AT HEARING, 1999-03-02 (photo)

Janie Hickman (R), the girlfriend of Walter LaGrand and his sister Patricia (L), weep as they listen to Walter's forty-three minute statement before the clemency board at the Arizona State Prison, March 2. Walter was scheduled to die in the gas chamber March 3 at 3 p.m. for the 1982 murder of Ken Hartsock, a Valley National Bank manager in Marana, Arizona. His brother Karl was executed by lethal injection for the same crime on February 24. The German Ambassador to the U.S. Jurgen Chrobog, who attended the hearing, requested a 60 day reprieve for Walter on behalf of the German government. The clemency board voted 2-1 in favor of the reprieve and that decision will be passed onto GovenorJane Hull who will either grant or deny the request. JT/HB/WS