VA Killer Spared Execution; NC Killer Worries About Being #1,000

Virginia's Gov. Mark Warner spared the life of Robin Lovitt just a day before he was to become the 1,000th person executed since capital punishment was reinstated nearly 30 years ago. Lovitt, 42, stabbed Clayton Dicks to death with a pair of scissors in 1988, and on Tuesday his sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole. The governor's reason for commuting Levitt's sentence was that evidence from the trial had been improperly destroyed. Without that evidence, the governor says,Levitt's defense lawyers do not have the chance to subject the material to the latest DNA testing procedures. Warner, who has never before granted clemency to a death row inmate, justified his actions by saying, "The commonwealth must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out, it is done fairly."

Prosecutors said that Lovitt was caught prying open a cash register with the scissors, which were found by police in the woods between the pool hall and the house where Lovitt's cousin lived. Lovitt admitted stealing the cash box, but has always insisted that someone else killed Dicks. DNA tests were performed on the scissors at the time, but the results of the tests were inconclusive. In 2001, a court clerk destroyed the scissors and other evidence in the case, so additional DNA testing with newer procedures was impossible. Lovitt's lawyers, who include former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, said that today's more sophisticated DNA tests could have cleared their client if the scissors were still available for testing.

Just a few weeks ago, Virginia implemented a law requiring that DNA evidence in death row cases must be preserved in perpetuity. Warner's decision was a blow to the family of Dicks, who are now struggling to cope with the fact that Lovitt will not be executed after all. Michelle Dicks, the victim's niece, said, "We're not too happy, but it doesn't make a difference because it doesn't bring my uncle back."

The governor said he is acutely aware of the tragic loss experienced by the Dicks family. "However," he added, "evidence in Mr. Lovitt's trial was destroyed by a court employee" before post-conviction DNA tests could be done. "The actions of an agent of the commonwealth, in a manner contrary to the express direction of the law, comes at the expense of a defendant facing society's most severe and final sanction." Michael Paranzino, president of Throw Away the Key, a pro-death penalty group, was angered by the governor's decision. "The governor has sided with a killer against the working people of America," said Paranzino. "Lovitt's a cold-blooded killer and he's just been given an early Christmas gift by Warner."

With Lovitt's sentence being commuted, the 1,000th execution is now scheduled for early Friday in North Carolina, where Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, is scheduled to be executed for killing his estranged wife and her father. Boyd does not deny shooting Julie Curry Boyd and her father, Thomas Dillard Curry, after a night of drinking. Boyd was separated from his wife at the time and she was living with her father. In a prison interview with the Associated Press, Boyd said, "I remember sitting in my house, with nobody around. I blinked my eyes and I'd done shot my father-in-law. When they told me how many times I shot her, I couldn't believe it." He added, "It's just a thing that happened, just snapped."

In petitioning Gov. Mike Easley for clemency, Boyd's attorneys argued that Boyd was a bulldozer operator in Vietnam, where he was targeted by snipers on a daily basis. They say that he began drinking while overseas, and the emotional trauma he suffered while serving in Vietnam contributed to his crimes. Boyd has called his death penalty sentence "nothing but revenge." When asked how he felt about becoming the 1,000th person executed in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated, Boyd replied, "I'd hate to be remembered as that. I don't like the idea of being picked as a number." Boyd's death is scheduled for 2 a.m. Friday by lethal injection, and it is unlikely that the courts or Gov. Easley will intervene.