Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 22, 1995 TAG: 9502220064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
Barbara Jo Archie had petitioned for a new trial, claiming that lawyer Ed Jasie was ineffective in adopting a temporary-insanity defense without investigating other defenses.
Archie was 25 when she was convicted in 1990 of murdering Audra Kinder. The child died Feb. 5, 1989, a day after she was taken to the hospital with severe head injuries. Archie was living with Audra and her father.
Retired Circuit Judge Dow Owens denied Archie's request after a brief hearing at which she was the only person to testify. The hearing centered on Audra's medical records, which suggested the child had been repeatedly abused by people other than Archie.
Archie told her new attorney, Michael Morchower of Richmond, that Jasie never reviewed those medical records with her.
Morchower also argued that Jasie, who died in 1991, failed to present character witnesses who would have testified on Archie's behalf. Archie testified she gave Jasie a long list of references who would have testified to her good reputation, lack of criminal history and lack of a violent nature.
``Mr. Jasie said that we would not need any witnesses ... that all we needed was Dr. [Morgan] Scott,'' Archie testified.
Scott, a psychiatrist, conducted a videotaped session with Archie after she had been injected with sodium amytal - truth serum - and hypnotized so she could recall how the child suffered a fractured skull and two fractured arms.
According to evidence presented at trial, Archie recalled how she noticed red marks in the child's private areas while changing the child's clothes. Suspecting sexual abuse, Jasie said she lost control and blacked out.
During the taped session with the psychiatrist, Archie told Scott she hurt Audra Kinder but thought she was hurting the child's mother.
Morchower contended that Jasie's decision to go solely with an insanity defense was a ``risky type of strategy'' in this case.
Testimony about abuse allegedly inflicted on Audra by other people, as well as statements by character witnesses, might have swayed the jury to find Archie guilty of a lesser charge, Morchower argued.
But Ironwood Wells, an assistant attorney general, argued there was no evidence that the jury would have changed its verdict had it heard such testimony.
Archie herself had testified to suspicions that the child had been abused by others, Wells said, so ``These [medical] records would have been no surprise to the jurors.''
Kinder died from a blow to her head within the last 24 hours of her life and had ``bruises and marks on a lot of her body,'' Wells said. Archie gave five different accounts of how the girl suffered the injuries, and the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to convict her, he said.
Given all the evidence against Archie, Jasie developed a defense that was more than suitable, Wells told Owens.
``This was an extensive, fair trial. ... All you have to do is read the trial [transcript], and you can tell he worked like a dog,'' Wells said.
The judge agreed.
``He was a highly skilled, dedicated and tenacious defense attorney'' who ``overlooked nothing'' in his defense, Owens said. Jasie had to go with the insanity defense, faced with Archie's differing statements and the ``truth serum'' videotape, the judge said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***