1,000 Deaths Weighed On VA Gov., Lovitt's Sentence Commuted

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_2121571.shtml


One day before Robin Lovitt was to become the 1,000th person executed since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976, Virginia's governor spared the man's 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.

In review of the past 28 years, the US executed one person every 10 days on average.

Well, the US is about to hit its 1,000th execution since the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976.

The spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, David Elliott, claimed "The annual execution rate has dropped 40% from a high of 98 in 1999."

"More importantly, death sentences have declined 50% since the late 1990s to around 150 a year." He said.

Only three states account for over half of the 998 executions that were carried out since 1977. Texas, Virginia, and Oklahoma. Just Texas itself has performed 355.



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Interesting, if * running for President caused the number of executions to decline.

evidence thrown away, not because it would have been #1000.

number 677 or 991 or any of the other 997 that went before.

Symbolism Sucks.

I found that stat that the execution numbers dropped by 40% since 1999. You do remember Shrub moved to the WH in Jan 2000, don't you!!!!

I get that confused all the time.

http://www.vuac.org/capital/robinlovitt.pdf

He took the cash drawer to his cousin's house to open it and the police retrieved it.

I hate to say this because if the dead man was my relative, I'd want the death penalty too, but if someone at the court LOST the evidence (the scissors) that would have provided proof via DNA of Lovitt's guilt or innocence, then he shouldn't be put to death.

I'm a firm believer that you use EVERY method available to you in order to be positive of guilt before the death penalty is ever carried out! Get mad at the court employee, not at Warner!

Now, it's on Arnold.

I predict he will spare the guy now because his popularity is already hurting and he's not gonna be #1000.