Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 23, 1995 TAG: 9505230098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Willie Lloyd Turner is slated to die Thursday for shooting a Franklin jewelry store owner in the head during a robbery in 1978. Witnesses said Turner did not speak as he fired, then pumped two more bullets into Jack Smith's prone body.
He was sentenced to death by two juries and has pursued a variety of appeals over the years. Turner came close to being executed three times, but stays or appeals postponed his death.
U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris denied Turner's request to delay the execution and hold a hearing into whether 15 years is an unconstitutionally long time to spend on death row.
Turner had every right to pursue his appeals and delay his death, but cannot then complain about the length of the delay, Cacheris wrote.
``It would be a strange twist of logic to hold that, by bending over backwards to protect [Turner's] due process rights and ensure a valid sentence, [Turner] has been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment,'' Cacheris wrote.
The Eighth Amendment forbidding inhumane treatment of prisoners may apply to death row inmates whose cases are deliberately delayed or mishandled by state authorities, Cacheris found.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the execution of a Texas killer whose lawyer argued that 17 years as a condemned man violated the Eighth Amendment. In a memorandum, Justice Stephen Breyer called the issue ``important and undecided,'' opening the way for lower courts to interpret the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment in such cases.
Turner's lawyer, Walter J. Walvick, said he will appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. The appeal was filed late Monday afternoon, but the court has scheduled no action.
``We are disappointed in Judge Cacheris' order,'' Walvick said. ``We think he is wrong.''
Walvick said he told Turner about the decision Monday morning. ``He was disappointed,'' Walvick said, ``but he was not expecting any relief.''
Turner, 49, helped plan the infamous 1984 breakout at Mecklenburg prison, where most death row prisoners in Virginia are housed. Two years later, he was transferred to a special isolation unit at Powhatan state prison, where conditions are indescribably grim, Walvick said.
For the fourth time, Turner is passing his days in the isolation cells that abut the death chamber. He may choose death by electric chair or injection at the maximum-security Greensville prison in Jarratt.
``Each time is worse than the time before,'' Turner said in an interview with The Washington Post. ``It's like a long hell within a hell on Earth.''
Cacheris, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, said Turner's last-minute appeals should be made to Gov. George Allen instead of in court.
Allen has granted no clemency requests since he took office last year.
The Virginia Supreme Court rejected Turner's Eighth Amendment argument last week. None of the other 55 inmates on Virginia's death row has made a similar argument.
Virginia inmates typically spend at least six years on death row. Nationwide, the average length of stay on death row is about six years, although several inmates are still awaiting death after 20 years.
Memo: NOTE: SHorter version ran in Metro edition.