PRISONER LOSES EXECUTION APPEAL

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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993                   TAG: 9303190186
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JARRATT                                LENGTH: Short
PRISONER LOSES EXECUTION APPEAL
A man who challenged electric-chair executions as unconstitutional lost a final U.S. Supreme Court appeal Thursday as the hour approached for carrying out his death sentence.
Syvasky L. Poyner had sought a ruling that Virginia's method of carrying out capital sentences in the electric chair at Greensville Correctional Center violated the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Lawyers for the state contended that Poyner's appeal amounted to a delaying tactic.
The Supreme Court voted 7-2 not to stop the execution. Justices Harry A. Blackmun and John Paul Stevens voted to postpone the execution, apparently to give the court more time to study the appeal.
Earlier this week, Gov. Douglas Wilder said he found no reason to grant clemency to the 36-year-old Poyner, who was convicted of killing five women during an 11-day crime spree in 1984 in Hampton, Newport News and Williamsburg.
Poyner robbed his victims and told police he shot them because he didn't want to leave witnesses. He said he chose women because they were easily frightened.
"I am sorry for all the hurt and pain and sorrows and suffering that I caused," Poyner said Thursday in a statement released through his attorney, Alexander H. Slaughter. "Please forgive me. . . . I am going home to be with Jesus."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB