Pikeville, KY — A Kentucky man on death row for murdering a student has worked out a deal to convert his death sentence into a life sentence without parole. Circuit Judge Eddy Coleman approved a motion to set aside 69-year-old Roger Dale Epperson’s death sentence and re-sentence him to life without parole. Epperson was convicted of murdering 23-year-old Tammy Dee Acker on August 8, 1985. The University of Kentucky student was fatally stabbed during a robbery at her father, Dr. Roscoe J. Acker’s Fleming-Neon home in Letcher County. Epperson has an appeal pending in federal court of his conviction and sentence which could have gone on until Epperson was in his 80s. The judge and Acker’s family agreed that if Epperson would give up the appeal of his conviction the death sentence would be removed.

                                                                Roger Dale Epperson

                                                                Tammy Dee Acker