Free Republic

RICHMOND, Va. Nov 30, 2005 — A day before Robin Lovitt was to become the 1,000th person executed since capital punishment resumed in 1977, Virginia's governor spared his life. Lovitt's sentence on Tuesday was commuted to life in prison without parole for stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors during a 1988 pool hall robbery. Gov. Mark R. Warner said evidence from Lovitt's trial had been improperly destroyed, depriving the defense of the opportunity to subject the material to the latest in DNA testing. "The commonwealth must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out,...

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...