ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994                   TAG: 9402250251
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

MURDERER SAYS RACISM TAINTED DEATH SENTENCE

A black man who killed two white convenience-store employees asked Gov. George Allen to call off his scheduled execution, alleging racism affected his sentencing.

Johnny Watkins Jr., 33, of Danville is scheduled to die March 3 in the electric chair. His 1984 murder convictions were upheld on appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear his case.

Watkins killed Betty Jean Barker, 22, as she worked alone at a convenience store Nov. 14, 1983. Eight days later, he shot Carl Buchanan, 41, a clerk at another store.

Watkins' lawyer, Gerald Zerkin, said his trials were infected by racism, and blacks systematically were excluded from the juries that sentenced him to die. - Associated Press 


 by CNB