LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Board of Pardons has refused to grant a hearing to a man who’s been imprisoned since 1968 for killing two people.

The board last week rejected pleas from the sister of Brian Adams. Vivian Adams Dennison shared her family’s story with the three board members last week as she asked them to grant her 65-year-old brother a commutation hearing.

She said their father had beaten her brother, who had been “taught his entire existence that he was worthless.” Brian Adams was convicted of killing gas station attendants in separate crimes.

Gov. Dave Heineman, sitting as a member of the board, told Dennison that the judge gave Adams the life sentences for a purpose.