Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190266
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Meanwhile, Gov. Douglas Wilder said he would "wait until all legal avenues have been foreclosed" before deciding whether to commute Boggs' sentence to life in prison.
Boggs, 27, is scheduled to die at 11 p.m. for the 1984 robbery and murder of his elderly neighbor.
His attorneys asked that the execution be delayed because the state's electric chair might malfunction and because Boggs suffers from brain damage related to fetal alcohol syndrome.
The state's high court ruled that Boggs' claims had no merit. U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams set a hearing for 10 a.m. today on Boggs' request for a stay of execution.
The appeal said Virginia's electric chair is "virtually identical" to one in Florida that needed three electrical jolts to kill Jesse Tafero on May 4.
"Personnel at the Virginia Department of Corrections know or reasonably should know of the electric chair's risk of a malfunction. Such malfunction would be unnecessarily tortuous to Ricky Boggs," said the appeal filed with Williams.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently they has granted stays of execution in Florida because of a risk of malfunction in the electric chair, the appeal said.
The defense attorney also argued that Boggs suffers from organic brain damage caused by fetal alcohol syndrome and lacks the judgment necessary to make a moral choice to commit a criminal act.
Boggs was 21 when he murdered Treeby M. Shaw, 87, in her home on Jan. 25, 1984, to get money for drugs.
He confessed to beating the elderly widow with a metal bar and stabbing her after she served him tea. Boggs also admitted taking diamond rings from her fingers and some family silver.
He was charged after police found the silver in the trunk of his car when he was arrested Feb. 17 for killing a man in a hit-and-run accident. Boggs was convicted of first-degree murder for that crime and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
by CNB