Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190662
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams denied the stay request after an hour-long hearing, leaving the defense attorney's next avenue of appeal with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Boggs' claims had no merit.
Gov. Douglas Wilder said he would wait until legal appeals had been exhausted 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 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 torturous to Ricky Boggs," said the appeal filed with Williams.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has recently granted stays of execution in Florida because of a risk of malfunction in the electric chair, the appeal said.
The defense lawyers 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 confessed to murdering Treeby M. Shaw, 87, in her home on Jan. 25, 1984, to get money for drugs. He said he beat the elderly widow with a metal bar and stabbed her after she served him tea. Boggs also admitted taking diamond rings from her fingers and some old family silver.
He was arrested 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