ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991                   TAG: 9103040274
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SLAIN 12 YEARS AGO, KLINES FORGOTTEN

BARBARA Kline and Michelle Kline are dead. They were capitally punished by Joe Giarratano without the intercession of judge, jury or any legal process and, 12 years later, seem almost forgotten.

Giarratano was duly tried, convicted and sentenced to death in our state courts. Numerous Federal and state courts have reviewed his trial and found it free from error and fully supporting the trial judge's findings and sentence.

Forty-two years in the practice of law teach me to respect these conclusions and the system in which they are reached. But they are overcome by the frenetic "What if" scenarios posed by opponents of capital punishment and by the posturing of Hollywood and other celebrities who know nothing of the facts or of our system of justice.

It is to the latter influences that our politically minded governor has succumbed. Giarratano will be eligible for parole in 2004. Barbara and Michelle Kline will, of course, still be dead. Only the victims have no rights. CABELL F. COBBS ROANOKE 


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