Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 10, 1993 TAG: 9301100071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
WILDER ORDERS EXECUTION
Gov. Douglas Wilder on Saturday ordered the execution of a disabled prisoner who has said he will need to use a wheelchair to get to the electric chair.Lawyers for Charles S. Stamper of Richmond, who was convicted of shooting three co-workers to death in 1978, have said he is "extremely disabled" by a spinal cord injury received in prison and his sentence should be reduced to life in prison because he is no threat to society.
Nearly three months ago, Wilder stayed the execution six days before its scheduled date of Oct. 28, so Stamper's medical condition could be investigated by independent doctors. Saturday, Wilder ordered that Stamper, 39, be put to death on Jan. 19. Wilder's statement gave no reason for his decision but said he had "examined all relevant medical information."
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a non-profit group in Washington, said Stamper would be the most physically disabled person to be executed in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed the resumption of the death penalty in 1976. When his case came to light, the group had criticized "the notion of making the death house wheelchair accessible."
"This man can barely take a step," the group's program director, Pamela Rutter, said Saturday. "The image of him going from a wheelchair to an electric chair is devastating. Death penalty opponents had all been laying kind of low, hoping the governor would do the right thing."
Stamper's lawyer, Dennis Dohnal of Richmond, said he would meet with his client before deciding whether to pursue court appeals.
Stamper, who was a cook at a suburban restaurant, was convicted of shooting three co-workers to death in a robbery. He said he was disabled in 1988 after fellow inmates beat him and hit him over the head with an ashtray and now could walk 10 to 15 feet using a walker, an assessment that the independent doctors essentially agree with.