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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990                   TAG: 9006070415
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BY ASSOCIATED PRESS  RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

SAVINO PUBLIC EXECUTION REQUEST GOES TO WILDER

Condemned killer Joseph Savino has taken his request for a public execution to Gov. Douglas Wilder, also asking that he be executed by lethal injection rather than electrocution so he can donate his organs.

He also asked that a doctor under investigation in Michigan for the use of a suicide machine be allowed to perform the operation to remove his organs.

Savino is to executed June 29 for the November 1988 murder of Thos McWaters, a Bedford County man who Savino described as his lover.

Savino pleaded guilty to the crime and has chosen not to appeal his death sentence. His mandatory appeal was turned down by the state Supreme Court in April.

Savino bypassed the high court with his request for a public execution, which had previously been turned down by a circuit judge.

In his petition to Wilder, Savino asked the governor to order his execution televised. He also asked that lethal injection be used instead of the lectric chair so that, by donating his organs, his last act would be a good one.

Savino said the Anatomical Gift Act allows him the option of donating his organs, but execution by electrocution would render the organs unusable.

He named Dr. Jack Kevorkian of Royal Oak, Mich., as the doctor he would like to remove his organs.

by CNB