PHILADELPHIA—An accomplice who feels he was shafted after cutting a deal with Philadelphia prosecutors nearly 30 years ago tried Monday to save the life of the man against whom he testified.

Terrance "Terry" Williams, 46, is set to be the first person executed in Pennsylvania in 50 years who has not given up his appeals. A divided state pardons board rejected his bid for clemency last week but may revisit his case before the scheduled Oct. 3 execution.

Williams is on death row for killing 56-year-old Amos Norwood three months after turning 18—and five months after killing another older man.

Williams now says both victims had sexually abused him. And his lawyers say prosecutors knew that before trial, yet failed to disclose the information to Williams' trial lawyer or the jury.

"The arbitrary and capricious nature of the death penalty is exemplified, to me, by this case," said Marc Bookman, executive director of The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a nonprofit death penalty resource center in Philadelphia. "No one would say that this guy should be the first guy executed (in recent years), that he's the worst of the worst."

In court Monday, accomplice Marc Draper, a policeman's son, told Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina that a detective coerced him into lying about the motive for Norwood's death. He said he agreed to play up the robbery motive—he and Williams had stolen $20 and two credit cards after fatally beating Norwood at a cemetery—and avoid the sex angle.

"I was a sheep, to do anything that they wanted me to do. And I regret that. I'm almost embarrassed to say that, that I was so gullible," Draper said.

Williams had sex with several older men for money or gifts, Draper said. The defense claims that Norwood, a church deacon, began having sex with Williams when the boy was 13. And they say prosecutors knew about the relationship and had at least one other molestation complaint about Norwood that was not disclosed.

Draper is serving life without parole after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. He said he was promised a parole hearing after 15 years if he cooperated, only to learn that in Pennsylvania, a life sentence means life.

On cross-examination, Draper got tangled up at times explaining his changing story. But even without his testimony, Sarmina could stay the execution if she finds prosecutors withheld evidence.

District Attorney Seth Williams, in a weekend opinion column in The Philadelphia Inquirer, called Terrance Williams "a brutal, two-time murderer" and dismissed the new evidence claims.

"The most noticeable thing about this case is not the 'new evidence.' It's the willingness of some people to believe every defense claim as if it were gospel truth," Williams wrote.

The five-member state pardons board, which includes Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley and state Attorney General Linda Kelly, plans to meet Thursday morning to decide whether to reconsider Williams' clemency petition. If so, the hearing would be held Thursday afternoon.

Alternately, if Sarmina grants a stay, and the decision is not overturned, Williams' death warrant would expire on Oct. 3. Gov. Tom Corbett would then have 30 days to issue a new death warrant, to be carried out within 60 days, if Williams is not pardoned or granted a life sentence.

There are 200 people on death row in Pennsylvania, but only three people have been executed since 1976.

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Associated Press Writer Peter Jackson in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.