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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 22, 1992                   TAG: 9201220358
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

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JUDGE REFUSES TO DELAY EXECUTION

A federal judge refused Tuesday to postpone death row inmate Herbert Bassette's scheduled execution, saying he was barred from hearing new evidence Bassette's lawyers say could exonerate him.

U.S. District Judge Robert Merhige said he could not overturn a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that Bassette was not entitled to a hearing on the new evidence.

Bassette, 47, is scheduled to die in the state's electric chair at 11 p.m. Thursday for the 1979 robbery and murder of 16-year-old Henrico County gas station Albert Burwell. Attorney Patricia Schwarzschild said Bassette's lawyers have appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. If Bassette loses there, he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, she said. - Associated Press

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