Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991 TAG: 9104020305
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: POWHATAN LENGTH: Medium
"I'm seriously considering writing the book myself," Giarratano, 33, told The Richmond News Leader during a recent interview at the Powhatan Reception and Classification Center.
He also said prospects for a movie look good.
"I know the movie is in the works," he said, adding that work on a script is under way.
Giarratano came within three days of being executed Feb. 22 for the rape and strangulation of 15-year-old Michelle Kline in Norfolk in 1979. He also was convicted of murder in the stabbing of the teen-ager's mother, Barbara Kline, 44, the same night in the victims' Ocean View apartment.
Giarratano arrived at the Powhatan center from the state Penitentiary on Feb. 21, two days after Gov. Douglas Wilder commuted Giarratano's death sentence to 25 years in prison. He has received credit for 12 years served and will be eligible for parole in 13 years.
Giarratano also said he wants to become a lawyer, and hopes to attend the University of Virginia law school.
Widely regarded as a self-educated legal scholar, Giarratano has initiated court cases on behalf of death row inmates, one of which reached the U.S. Supreme Court, and has had articles published in law school journals.
Richard Bonnie, a University of Virginia law professor who worked on Giarratano's case, has told the inmate he would sponsor him if he applied to law school.
"I would have favorable things to say about his ability and his character in support of his application for admission to any law school, including this one," Bonnie said.
Giarratano had hoped to receive a new trial. But the day after Wilder granted the conditional pardon, Attorney General Mary Sue Terry rejected the governor's suggestion of a new trial for Giarratano.
During his 1979 trial, the prosecutor relied upon circumstantial evidence and contradictory confessions, since discredited by crime scene evidence, Giarratano's attorneys contend.
Giarratano, a drug addict at the time of the Klines' deaths, has said in recent years that he has no memory of the killings and that he made up his five confessions.
Giarratano said he believes new evidence, gathered by private investigators over the past three years, will prove him innocent.
He said he will continue to petition for a new trial.
by CNB