Posted on 11/29/2005 2:07:48 PM PST by Jean S
RICHMOND, Va.
Gov. Mark R. Warner granted clemency Tuesday to a convicted killer who would have been the 1,000th person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.
Robin Lovitt's death sentence was commuted to life in prison.
Lovitt, 42, was set to be executed by injection Wednesday night for stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors during a pool-hall robbery in 1998.
Lovitt's lawyers, who include former independent counsel Kenneth Star, and anti-death penalty advocates had argued that his life should be spared because a court clerk illegally destroyed the bloody scissors and other evidence, preventing DNA testing that they said could exonerate him.
The 1,000th execution is now scheduled for Friday in North Carolina, where Kenneth Lee Boyd is slated to die for killing his estranged wife and her father.
The nation's 999th execution since capital punishment resumed a generation ago took place Tuesday morning, when Ohio put to death John Hicks, who strangled his mother-in-law and suffocated his 5-year-old stepdaughter to cover up the crime.
I suspect we will be seeing more of this with Tim CINO Kaine
That averages to about 34 per year, just under 3 per month. I wonder how many are sentenced to death per month?
This case was a little wierd, because the evidence was destroyed after a law was passed requiring all DNA evidence in death penalty cases to be preserved.
Thus, the defendant lost his right to have the DNA evidence re-evaluated with better tests, tests that have occasionally revealed innocence.
The defendant was not released, and will serve a life sentence.
I've actually wondered if, if you are innocent, you are better off being sentenced to death -- because if you are sentenced to life, your life is "over", but the state doesn't save any DNA and you have no rights to appeal like you do in death penalty cases.
Richmond ping.....just in case ya'll hadn't heard.
No, I hadn't heard.
Well, destroying the murder weapon is kind of a minor problem.
Well, nobody destroyed any evidence on the founder of the Crips gang. Will Ahnold cave? I say yes.
OK...put the court clerk down.
I'm not sure how DNA testing might be expected to clear him. Was there any question that the scissors were covered with the victim's blood? Is there any likelihood that the killer's DNA would be on the scissors?
Maybe if the convicted man were found with blood covered scissors in his car, that were not directly linked to the crime, and he had some other reason for bloody scissors to be there...
Mrs VS
Just kidding but I bet this turd is still working.
Would have been interesting if the guy had stabbed Warners wife to death . What would he have done then ????
I guess Mark Warner is worried about liberal voters in the Dem presidential primaries. This is the opposite of Bill Clinton, who to prove his "electability" made sure to fly back to Arkansas right before the New Hampshire primary in order to preside over the execution of black murderer Ricky Ray Rector (who happened to be brain damaged after a suicide attempt).
Minor problem??? I hope you were being sarcastic.
While I am not a Warner supporter, I must say your question is not a fair one.
The man who committed this murder is not being released. Evidence, however, that may have exonerated him has been destroyed, thus preventing him from having the evidence subjected to current DNA testing procedures.
I am NOT a fan of Mark Warner. I AM a big fan of the death penalty. I hate to admit it, but the Governor got this one right!!
Man, oh man! Virginia can "fast-track" 'em.....that's only 7 years.
Our Tookie has been on Death Row for around 25 years.
I say let's make Scott Peterson #1000!!!
They did DNA testing. The scissors had the victim's blood, but they didn't find the defendant's DNA. Newer tests would be expected to FIND DNA if he had touched the scissors, so I guess the thought is if they tested the scissors with the most modern technique and didn't find any trace of the defendant's DNA, that would give reasonable doubt that he handled the scissors.
For some in Virginia, the point isn't whether there was a reasonable chance his innocence could be proven (he has always insisted he was innocent), but rather a strictly legal argument that there should be some "punishment" for violation of the law, and if the state has violated the law the defendant should not be put to death.
Remember, this law was meant to cover a real possibility that otherwise innocent people would be put to death. So to have destroyed the evidence could bring doubt on the certainty that we are only executing guilty people.
Even strong death-penalty supporters have argued this defendant should have his sentence commuted (including the former republican governor Gilmore). The real question for many has been why Warner didn't make this move long ago -- and the answer we come up with is he had to wait until after the election so as not to hurt his Lt. Governor's chances, since Kaine was opposed to the death penalty and had to promise to still put people to death.
Justice delayed is justice denied......
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