Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 14, 1995 TAG: 9511140108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JARRATT LENGTH: Medium
Barnes was scheduled to die by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center.
U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer denied a request Wednesday to stay Barnes' execution. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond unanimously denied such a request about 7:45 p.m. Monday.
Barnes then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Ken Stroupe, a spokesman for Gov. George Allen. The court denied his stay request without dissent at 9:25 p.m., said court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.
The governor gave permission to delay the scheduled 9 p.m. execution as late as 10 p.m. to wait for the Supreme Court's ruling, Stroupe said.
Allen denied Barnes' petition for clemency Monday night.
``He's reviewed the petition and the arguments for clemency by Barnes' attorneys, and he's concluded that the facts and the procedural record of the case do not warrant the use of executive clemency,'' Stroupe said.
Barnes asked the courts to halt his execution on the grounds that the part of the death penalty law that requires a crime be ``vile'' to execute a defendant is vague.
The federal appeals court denied Barnes' claim, and attacked him for ``this eleventh-hour strategy.''
Barnes, 31, was convicted of capital murder in July 1986 for killing Clyde Jenkins, 72, and Mohammad Afifi, 42, during an attempted robbery at the Bon Supermarket.
Barnes had been scheduled for execution Oct. 5, but the governor allowed a stay because of an illness in the family of one of Barnes' attorneys.
After the stay, Barnes appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Late last week, the high court rejected his appeal without comment.
Jenkins was shot while resisting a masked Barnes who burst into his store shortly after 10 p.m. on June 27, 1985. Another man, James David Allen Corey, waited outside the store and served as a lookout.
Corey was sentenced to 91 years in prison. He told police that the pair had planned to rob the store.
by CNB