THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280422
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: STUART, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
A Circuit Court judge will set a Sept. 27 execution date for convicted murderer Dennis Stockton, who has been on death row more than 12 years, longer than any other inmate in Virginia.
Under the circumstances, Stockton's lawyers viewed the outcome of a Wednesday hearing as something of a victory.
His lawyers - Steven D. Rosenfield of Charlottesville and Anthony F. King of Washington - blasted the state attorney general's office for attempting to set an execution date before the U.S. Supreme Court heard Stockton's final appeal.
They said it is imperative that courts have time to review new evidence only recently made public, something they believe the attorney general's office isn't concerned about.
``We are astounded that the government has the audacity to ask the court to execute our client before the Supreme Court looks at the case,'' Rosenfield said. ``Somebody should investigate the state and the morons that make these kind of decisions.''
Acting on a request from the attorney general, Patrick County Commonwealth's Attorney Alan Black petitioned the court Wednesday to set Stockton's execution for Sept. 14, 12 days before the scheduled U.S. Supreme Court review of the case.
Black, however, said the Sept. 26 Supreme Court review was set only because there is no execution date for Stockton - who was convicted of the 1978 murder of Kenneth Arnder, 18.
``It's a nonissue,'' Black said. ``If an execution date is set, then the Supreme Court will move it up on their schedule. The Supreme Court is not in the business of letting death row appeals go by without a ruling. They will rule.''
The attorney general's office sought an execution date after Stockton was denied his latest appeal by U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser last month, Black said.
Rosenfield countered that Black did not notify him and King in writing of the execution date, as required by state law.
So Judge Charles Stone continued the case until Monday, when he said he will set Stockton's execution for Sept. 27.
Stockton's lawyers said they now will move quickly to outline their options. They were to visit Stockon on death row at the Mecklenburg Correctional Center later Wednesday.
In June, Kiser refused to review the case despite a new development: In April, the key witness in Stockton's 1983 trial recanted his testimony to a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot.
The witness, Randy G. Bowman, testified in 1983 that he heard Stockton accept money to kill Arnder, whose body was found near Mount Airy, N.C. He had been shot in the head and his hands had been hacked off.
Bowman told the newspapers this year that he never heard the money-for-hire deal.
But the attorney general's office later filed an affidavit in federal court in which Bowman claimed he never recanted.
In May, the supervising investigator in the capital murder case, Clifford Boyd, said in a statement filed in federal court that he believes Stockton is innocent. Boyd, who is now retired from the Patrick County Sheriff's Office, made the statement during an interview with a private investigator.
KEYWORDS: DEATH ROW CAPITAL PUNISHMENT MURDER SHOOTING by CNB