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UPDATE 1-Virginia governor stops milestone U.S. execution
Tue Nov 29, 2005 5:03 PM ET
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Virginia Gov. Mark Warner halted the execution of a convicted murderer who would have been the 1,000th person put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
"The governor commuted the death sentence to life in prison without parole," spokesman Kevin Hall said.
At issue was uncertainty that Robin Lovitt was guilty because DNA evidence in his trial had been illegally destroyed.
Lovitt was scheduled to die by lethal injection in a state prison on Wednesday evening. Warner is a Democrat considering a run for the presidency, and faced an issue that has figured prominently in many past campaigns.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and executions resumed in 1977, 999 people have been executed in the United States. North Carolina and South Carolina have scheduled executions later in the week.
Lovitt's case has attracted worldwide attention. Hall said earlier the governor had received roughly 1,500 phone calls, letters and e-mails from across the United States and several foreign countries, almost all urging clemency.
Prominent conservatives have said the case could undermine public support for the death penalty. Former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who investigated then-President Bill Clinton's extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, argued Lovitt's case at an appeals-court hearing in February.
Lovitt was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing a night manager in a pool hall the previous year. He claims another man committed the murder and his lawyers argued he could have proved his innocence if DNA evidence used at his trial had not been illegally destroyed.
Warner has denied each of the 11 previous clemency petitions that have come before him as governor.
Since Lovitt will not be executed, Kenneth Boyd, scheduled to die Friday in North Carolina and Shawn Humphries on the same day in South Carolina, could be the 1,000th and 1,001st executions since the end of what amounted to a decade-long moratorium on executions by the states as the Supreme Court wrestled with the issue.
Tue Nov 29, 2005 5:03 PM ET
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Virginia Gov. Mark Warner halted the execution of a convicted murderer who would have been the 1,000th person put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
"The governor commuted the death sentence to life in prison without parole," spokesman Kevin Hall said.
At issue was uncertainty that Robin Lovitt was guilty because DNA evidence in his trial had been illegally destroyed.
Lovitt was scheduled to die by lethal injection in a state prison on Wednesday evening. Warner is a Democrat considering a run for the presidency, and faced an issue that has figured prominently in many past campaigns.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and executions resumed in 1977, 999 people have been executed in the United States. North Carolina and South Carolina have scheduled executions later in the week.
Lovitt's case has attracted worldwide attention. Hall said earlier the governor had received roughly 1,500 phone calls, letters and e-mails from across the United States and several foreign countries, almost all urging clemency.
Prominent conservatives have said the case could undermine public support for the death penalty. Former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who investigated then-President Bill Clinton's extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, argued Lovitt's case at an appeals-court hearing in February.
Lovitt was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing a night manager in a pool hall the previous year. He claims another man committed the murder and his lawyers argued he could have proved his innocence if DNA evidence used at his trial had not been illegally destroyed.
Warner has denied each of the 11 previous clemency petitions that have come before him as governor.
Since Lovitt will not be executed, Kenneth Boyd, scheduled to die Friday in North Carolina and Shawn Humphries on the same day in South Carolina, could be the 1,000th and 1,001st executions since the end of what amounted to a decade-long moratorium on executions by the states as the Supreme Court wrestled with the issue.
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