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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 2, 1995                   TAG: 9502020048
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TUGGLE'S MURDER VERDICT FROM 1984 RETURNS TO COURT

Attorneys for the state will ask the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond to reverse a ruling by a federal judge in Roanoke that Tuggle's conviction was ``inherently unreliable'' because Tuggle's constitutional rights were violated during his original trial.

In June, U.S. District Judge James Turk ordered the state to release Tuggle or grant him a new trial within six months. The state appealed the decision, and Turk's order was put on hold until the appeals court issues a ruling.

Tuggle was sentenced to death in January 1984 for the rape and capital murder of Jessie G. Havens, but that wasn't his first murder conviction.

In 1972, Tuggle was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of 18-year-old Shirley Mullins Brickey. The state paroled him after about 10 years, and Tuggle returned to his native Smyth County.

Four months later, Havens was found dead.

In one of the biggest court cases in the county's history, Tuggle was sentenced to death.

For the past decade, his attorneys have filed appeal after appeal, hoping that a judge would overturn the conviction.

Turk finally did, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to convict Tuggle of rape because small bruises were found outside Havens' vagina but no semen was found inside. Turk also ruled that Tuggle's rights were violated because the Smyth County Circuit Court failed to appoint an independent psychiatrist and an expert pathologist to help in his defense.

While the decision angered family members of both victims, it did not surprise capital punishment experts.

``This is a case the Virginia Supreme Court should have cleared up a long time ago,'' Richmond lawyer Gerald T. Zerkin said after Turk's ruling.

In 1984, Tuggle and five other death-row inmates broke out of Mecklenberg Correctional Center by posing as prison guards disposing of a fake bomb. Tuggle, who was on the run for a week before being captured in Vermont, is the only member of the group who hasn't been executed.