TEEN BOY APPEALS MURDER CONVICTION

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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993                   TAG: 9301210261
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short
TEEN BOY APPEALS MURDER CONVICTION
A lawyer for a 17-year-old boy convicted of capital murder last year has filed an appeal claiming Shawn Novak did not get a fair trial.
Novak was convicted in March 1992 of murdering two boys. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Stephen C. Mahan argued in the appeal to the Virginia Court of Appeals that Virginia Beach Circuit Judge John K. Moore erred in allowing the prosecution to use Novak's videotaped confession. Mahan said the confession should have been thrown out because police misled Novak's mother into thinking her son was not a suspect and then lied to the teen-ager to obtain the confession.
- Associated Press

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB