Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 14, 1993 TAG: 9306140180
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium
Andrew J. Chabrol is scheduled to be strapped into the electric chair Thursday night at the Greensville Correctional Center for the July 1991 rape and murder of Melissa Harrington.
Chabrol's conviction and death sentence have been upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court, but his case has never had a hearing in any federal court.
While Chabrol would not be the first condemned man in the country to die while potential appeals remain, most death-row prisoners who decide against exhausting all their chances get at least one hearing before a federal judge.
In many cases, the U.S. Supreme Court is asked to review death sentences, although the court agrees to hear only a handful of capital cases.
Chabrol, 36, was a Navy officer and Harrington was in his command when he tried to develop a romantic relationship with her in 1990. But she rejected his advances - both were married - and complained to his superior.
Chabrol blamed her complaint for damaging his career and ruining his marriage. He left the Navy in January 1991 and began planning revenge, keeping a computer journal in which he referred to Harrington as "Nemesis."
After several months of trying, Chabrol learned where Harrington lived. He got another man, Stanley J. Berkeley, to help him abduct the woman from her Virginia Beach home while her husband was out of town, and they took her to Chabrol's house in Chesapeake.
Harrington was strapped to a bed and raped. When she tried to fight, her head was tightly wrapped in duct tape and she was strangled with a rope.
"I just went berserk," Chabrol testified at his trial, where he pleaded guilty. Berkeley was sentenced to three life terms on convictions of first-degree murder, rape and abduction.
Circuit Judge Russell Townsend Jr. called the crime "incomprehensible."
The state Supreme Court upheld Chabrol's plea and sentence in February.
The review was automatic and is done in all death penalty cases even though Chabrol said he did not want the sentence overturned. There is no automatic review of capital cases in federal court.
In the past, death row inmates occasionally have dropped appeals but had a change of heart as their execution date approached. Chabrol isn't likely to do that, said his attorney, William Brown.
"I think everybody that knows him understands that this is the decision he's made and that he has to be the one to change his mind," Brown said. "And I don't think there's any chance he's going to do that."
Chabrol has refused to give any interviews, said Wayne Brown, operations officer at the Greensville prison.
Appeals in capital cases typically run for years, with some executions coming a decade or longer after the crime was committed. If Chabrol is executed this week, it would mark Virginia's shortest time from crime to punishment in the modern death penalty era, said David Parsons, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office.
Frank Coppola dropped his appeals but got a brief federal hearing shortly before his August 1982 execution. That hearing came at the request of a lawyer who had represented Coppola, the first of 19 Virginia death row inmates who have been put to death since the Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions.
Anti-death penalty groups that often get involved in capital cases, such as the Virginia Coalition on Jails and Prisons, indicated they probably wouldn't intervene without Chabrol's consent.
"Mr. Chabrol has not sought out our assistance," said Barry Weinstein of the Virginia Post-Conviction Assistance Project in Richmond.
Gov. Douglas Wilder's office said Chabrol has not filed a request for clemency.
Chabrol believes that any appeal "probably would not be worthwhile," said attorney Brown. "And why sit on death row that long? He's made his decision already."
by CNB