Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408260069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A federal judge has overturned the capital murder conviction and death sentence of Walter Correll Jr., who was convicted of killing a Franklin County man near Smith Mountain Lake in August 1985.
U.S. District Judge James Turk ordered the state to release Correll or give him a new trial within six months.
Correll, a 33-year-old Roanoke native, was convicted of robbing and stabbing C.W. Bousman Jr. of Wirtz.
Turk overturned the ruling, declaring that a confession Correll gave police was obtained unconstitutionally because the Roanoke man's right to have an attorney present was violated.
Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood, who prosecuted the case, was astounded by Turk's ruling.
"It's a mystery to me," he said. "To say we're disappointed is a pretty big understatement."
Hapgood said he's surprised that Turk disagrees with rulings by both the Virginia and U.S. supreme courts, which said the confession didn't violate Correll's rights.
This is the second death sentence Turk has overturned this summer. In June, he ordered the state to give Lem Tuggle a new trial, a decision the state has appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Prosecutors contend that Correll killed Bousman Aug. 11, 1985, after he and two friends kidnapped the Franklin County man in Roanoke, stuffed him in the trunk of his car and drove to Smith Mountain Lake.
Correll was arrested five days later after one of the men involved in the robbery told police Correll was the one who stabbed Bousman twice in the chest.
Correll gave police two statements shortly after his arrest, but a state judge ruled they couldn't be used as evidence because investigators ignored his request to consult with an attorney.
Two days later, Correll was driven to Appomattox for a lie-detector test, which he did not pass.
He then was taken to the Franklin County Jail, where he gave a third statement to Investigator Bill Overton, son of the county's sheriff.
That statement, which included a confession, was used to help convict Correll in March 1986.
Turk said the interview should have been suppressed from the trial because it was the result of the first two unconstitutionally obtained statements.
The judge said Correll initiated the third conversation with Overton only because someone - presumably in the sheriff's office - had told Correll that he failed the lie-detector test.
"The court cannot imagine a clearer example of a tainted confession," Turk wrote. "When the petitioner was presented with the fact that something was `wrong' with the polygraph results, it is only logical that he would attempt to give an explanation."
Hapgood said he assumes Turk's decision will be appealed, but that he will need to talk with the attorney general's office.
The prosecutor said that even if the third confession was obtained illegally - which he doesn't believe - there was more than enough evidence to convict Correll of the murder.
"You still have the testimony of many witnessess, including the co-defendants," he said.
Richard Edwin Reynolds and John Marshall Dalton both pleaded guilty in Bousman's murder. Reynolds received a 60-year sentence and Dalton was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
It was little consolation to Hapgood that Turk dismissed more than a dozen of Correll's appeal arguments.
Sheriff W.Q. Overton didn't want to comment on Turk's ruling, but said he knew it was going to upset the victim's family. He said Bill Bousman, C.W.'s father, has kept up with the case through the appeals process, and was waiting for Correll to be electrocuted.
"He's going to hit the roof when he finds out about this," Overton said.
Attempts to reach the Bousman family were unsuccessful.
Correll's mother, Hazel, said her son called Wednesday evening from Mecklenburg prison, just hours after Turk's ruling was filed.
She said he was really excited and that Turk's action was long overdue because her son was innocent.
"He didn't have nothing to do with this from the start," she said.
Hazel Correll, who lives in Roanoke, said nearly nine years of prison has changed her son, and he's now a born-again Christian.
"He even got us going to church," she said.
by CNB