Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990 TAG: 9006200231
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-8 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Savino, who was sentenced to death for robbing and fatally beating his homosexual lover in November 1988, has refused to appeal his June 29 execution.
Savino, 31, said he has no intention of changing his mind as he waits in a cell near the electric chair at the state Penitentiary.
"I feel that it would just be easier to go now than to languish on death row," Savino said in an interview from behind a wire-mesh window in a basement room.
Since dropping his appeals, Savino has asked for a televised execution and death by lethal injection rather than electrocution so he could donate his organs. Gov. L. Douglas Wilder has said state law does not permit him to grant Savino's request.
A public execution would convince more people that the death penalty is wrong, Savino said.
"As it is, they do it in the middle of the night in the basement in some corner of the prison so selected people see it and the next morning you want to read if the guy had last words. You just read that he was killed. It's kind of ho-hum," Savino said.
He said he never thought much about the death penalty until he was arrested shortly after the slaying of Thos McWaters, 64, in Bedford County. McWaters was beaten on the head with a hammer and stabbed repeatedly by Savino, who had moved to McWaters' farm after being released from a six-year prison term for armed robbery.
Savino said he killed McWaters in a cocaine-induced craze because the older man repeatedly demanded sex. "I had no right to kill him, no matter what," he said.
Savino grew up in a large Italian family in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Savino's parents divorced when he was young but he said he remained close to his father, who designs aircraft parts.
Savino's father, stepmother and sister have written to Wilder asking that Savino's sentence be commuted to life in prison. The governor is studying the case, but probably will not announce a decision until the execution date, said Laura F. Dillard, the governor's press secretary.
Savino said he doubts Wilder will commute his sentence. "Wilder wants to go to the White House," he said. "I don't think he'll get involved in this case."
Savino said he appreciates his family's support but it is not enough to change his mind. "If I do live another 10, 12 years I would just be keeping them in limbo also," he said.
Marie Deans, who has counseled death-row inmates as director of the Virginia Coalition on Jails and Prisons, said Savino was not interested in her help.
"I think Joe is really afraid of going insane on death row," she said. "I would be convinced that I would go crazy."
The worst part of his year on death row was the isolation and having nothing to do, Savino said. "I enjoy reading. I enjoy talking to my family and stuff, but I don't think that's enough to make me want to live."
by CNB