ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610140076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
A judge has ordered the warden of Mecklenburg Correctional Center to allow confidential contact visits between a death row convict and his wife when she is acting as a member of his legal team.
Joseph Roger O'Dell's wife, Lori Urs, is also an assistant to his lawyers.
Urs married O'Dell in an American Indian rite in December 1994.
``The sole justification for the decision to revoke Urs' privileges to engage in legal contact visits is that in [Virginia Department of Corrections Director Ron] Angelone's mind, the very fact of a romantic relationship between a death row inmate and a member of his legal team is a basis for a security concern,'' U.S. District Judge James Spencer wrote Friday.
During the summer, O'Dell's lawyers were told by Angelone that Urs would be allowed contact visits only as the spouse of a death row inmate - once every 90 days. Contact visits by legal advisers are allowed as often as necessary.
Prison officials cited security concerns as the reason to limit Urs' visits.
Last year, prison counselor Caroline Schloss fell in love with death row inmate Willie Lloyd Turner and became his paralegal. Shortly after Turner's execution in May 1995, a loaded handgun was found in his typewriter.
O'Dell is represented by a New York City law firm. Urs is an investigator and legal assistant for the firm and since last spring has been a member of O'Dell's legal team.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB