Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994 TAG: 9404180136
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short
Walter Mickens Jr. had challenged his conviction and sentence on several points, including the constitutionality of the death penalty and what he said was insufficient evidence against him.
The unanimous Supreme Court said it has upheld the death penalty in many other cases, and evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mickens killed Timothy J. Hall, 17.
Hall was murdered on March 28, 1992. His body, nude from the waist down except for a pair of socks, was found on a mattress beneath an abandoned construction company building. Twenty-five of Hall's stab wounds could have been fatal, a medical examiner testified.
Semen stains, pubic hairs and saliva stains on cigarette butts collected at the scene linked Mickens to the crime. Police also recovered Hall's tennis shoes from a person who told police he had bought them from Mickens for $5.
Mickens previously had been convicted of six other felonies, including two sodomy convictions. He had been released on parole three times - in 1973, 1979 and 1991 - and parole had been revoked the first two times.
by CNB