OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is seeking donations to pay for burial expenses of indigent death row inmates.The coalition will pay up to $500 toward burial expenses, said Kevin Acers, a coalition board member."Most of the inmates on death row are indigent, and many of them who face execution dates find
themselves in the rather surreal position of having to plan their own funerals," Acers said.

"In some cases, they have family members or friends who have the resources to dispose of the body in a way which is desirable to them. In other cases, they do not."So far, the coalition has put $500 toward the burial expenses of four death row inmates who were
executed. It has a request for funds from Gerardo Valdez, who is being considered for clemency by Gov. Frank Keating.

Valdez was sentenced to die for the 1989 murder of Juan Barron in Grady County. He received a 30-day stay from his June 19 execution date after the Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 to recommend commuting his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Keating met with members of his staff late Wednesday and was expected to issue a decision this week.

When family members do not claim the remains of an inmate, the inmate is buried in a 4-acre cemetery just northeast of Jackie Brannon Correctional Center in McAlester, said Bob Jameson, a spokesman for the prison. The prison is next door to Oklahoma State Penitentiary, home to Oklahoma's death row. The inmate is placed in a "disaster bag" and then a pine coffin, Jameson said.The cemetery, which opened in 1913, has 624 graves, including the graves of two inmates who were executed.

Some 192 of the graves are unmarked because the wooden markers deteriorated, Jameson said.Other graves have a marble headstone listing the inmate's name, birth date and date of death, Jameson said.The headstone costs about $65, while the coffin costs about $100, Jameson said.

"When an inmate is uncomfortable with having his body tossed into a hole behind the prison walls, but he doesn't have the financial resources for a funeral outside of the prison, then sometimes we get requests," Acers said.

The $500 doesn't cover the cost of a funeral but will cover the cost of cremation."It is up to the prisoner, attorney and family," Acers said. "We are not involved in the actual planning of the arrangements."