Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 28, 1993 TAG: 9305280206
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Fisher returned with a half-dozen lawyers to petition Judge William Sweeney to reverse his conviction and death penalty, arguing that he received ineffective defense counsel at this trial in 1987.
He was defended then by Bedford lawyer Harry Garrett.
Fisher was convicted of hiring a man to kill 18-year-old David William Wilkey during a hunting trip in Bedford County so he could collect on a $100,000 life insurance policy he had taken out on Wilkey. The killing was made to look like a hunting accident.
At this week's habeas corpus hearing, Fisher was represented by a Washington, D.C., law firm. Such appeals are routine in capital murder convictions but are rarely successful.
Lawyers argued that Garrett failed to provide Fisher an adequate defense by neglecting several defense issues that can be raised in capital cases.
That also is a typical argument employed in habeas corpus proceedings.
They also argued that Garrett overlooked several character witnesses for Fisher who could have been used at the sentencing portion of his trial and might have swayed a jury not to set the death penalty.
Garrett underwent more than four hours of questioning Wednesday and Thursday about his handling of Fisher's trial, which lasted three weeks.
He contended that he used all of the witnesses Fisher had suggested.
He said Fisher was involved in his own defense throughout.
Fisher, 51, who attended the two-day hearing, is on death row at the state prison in Mecklenburg.
The Virginia Supreme Court upheld Fisher's conviction and death sentence in 1988 and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his case six months later.
Sweeney, who is expected to issue a written ruling on the current appeal, could decide either to order a new trial, order a new sentencing hearing or let stand the sentence.
If Sweeney upholds the conviction, then Fisher can appeal again to the state Supreme Court and then to the federal court system. He still could be years away from execution.
Fisher has maintained he had no part in the slaying of Wilkey or the murder-for-hire scheme.
But Bobby Mulligan, who accompanied Fisher and Wilkey on the 1983 hunting trip, has testified that Fisher paid him $7,000 to shoot and kill Wilkey.
Mulligan pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
Authorities initially ruled that the shooting was an accident.
An investigation was started after the insurance company that handled the policy on Wilkey and paid Fisher $25,000 became suspicious.
by CNB