STATE DELAYS DEATH DAVIDSON WINS STAY OF EXECUTION

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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993                   TAG: 9302040148
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JARRATT                                LENGTH: Medium
STATE DELAYS DEATH DAVIDSON WINS STAY OF EXECUTION
A construction worker who killed his wife and two stepdaughters with a crowbar as they were packing to leave him won a stay of execution Wednesday hours before he was scheduled to die in the electric chair.
The Virginia Supreme Court halted the execution of Mickey Wayne Davidson, 35, saying it will hear arguments on whether a lower-court judge made the correct ruling when he said he didn't have jurisdiction to postpone the execution.
The Supreme Court ordered that briefs in the case be filed no later than April 9. No hearing date was set.
"The state Supreme Court will be considering some very important issues that will affect the process of litigating capital cases in a fair, reasonable and timely manner," said Barry Weinstein, an attorney for Davidson.
He said the ruling gives primary defense attorney Anthony Anderson, who was appointed by the court less than two weeks ago, time to prepare Davidson's defense. Davidson's execution would have been the swiftest since Virginia resumed executions in 1982. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced 19 months ago.
The Virginia State Bar joined the effort to postpone the execution by filing a supportive brief a few hours before the Supreme Court decision. Bar President William R. Rakes said a stay was "necessary to safeguard" the state's capital litigation system.
David Parsons, spokesman for Attorney General Stephen Rosenthal, said the state will not challenge the ruling, which came 7 1/2 hours before Davidson's scheduled execution.
Davidson, who has changed his mind several times about fighting his death sentence, didn't want to talk Wednesday about the decision or his case, said state prison chaplain Russ Ford, who was with the inmate.
Davidson pleaded guilty to killing Doris Davidson, 36, and his two stepdaughters, Mamie Clatterbuck, 14, and Tammy Clatterbuck, 13, in their Saltville home in June 1990.
Smyth County Circuit Judge Charles Smith had refused Monday to delay the execution for Anderson to file a technical review.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB