Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 27, 1995 TAG: 9505300068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: JARRATT LENGTH: Long
The wooden-handled, .32-caliber revolver was hidden in a secret compartment behind the typewriter ribbon.
Beneath the gun was a plastic bag containing 12 extra bullets.
Under the bullets, Turner had written the word ``Smile.''
Though the typewriter had been outside Turner's cell in the death house, he still could reach it through the bars.
Turner, a clever escape artist who also gained notoriety for his knack for making weapons and jail keys during his 15 years on death row, apparently saved his most startling gambit for the end.
About 30 minutes before the execution, Turner told his attorney, Walter Walvick: ``Look in the back of the typewriter when you get home. I didn't use it because of you.''
After the 9 p.m. execution, Walvick drove to his room at the Hampton Inn in Emporia and, in the presence of his wife and two reporters, pried open the typewriter. The gun was there, wrapped in tissue.
Walvick called police.
``My goodness, that's unique,'' said the Emporia police officer who arrived to investigate. ``I'm in awe.''
A stunned Walvick said, ``I think it's like Willie said: `They killed the person that murdered Jack Smith a long time ago.' I just wish society had the machinery to recognize that.''
Turner, 49, spent more time on Virginia's death row than any other inmate in modern times. He was executed for the 1978 murder of William J. ``Jack'' Smith Jr., a Franklin jewelry store owner. Smith was 54 when Turner entered his shop and shot him in the head during an attempted robbery. Two unidentified members of Smith's family were among the 14 witnesses to the execution.
Turner was declared dead at 9:07 p.m., the second Virginia inmate to be executed by lethal injection since it became an alternative to electrocution in the past year.
When former corrections chief Edward Murray visited Turner in his cell in the hours before the execution, Turner told Murray: ``I want you to know I'm letting you do this to me.''
Walvick heard Turner but at the time didn't know what he meant; Walvick did not know about the gun. Walvick said Turner could have used the gun to try one last escape or to take his own life.
Turner's career behind bars was full of surprises.
In February 1994, a search of his cell at Powhatan Correctional Center uncovered a stash that included two fake guns made of wood or plastic; a metal saw blade; at least two jailhouse knives, called shanks; and some ``home-made, key-type devices,'' said Fred L. Finkbeiner, chief deputy to the state public safety secretary.
Jerry Kilgore, the state secretary of public safety, said at the time that the saw was a ``hacksaw-type thing, straight from the days of old, like the Old West or something.''
After the discovery of the stash, Turner was moved from Powhatan to Greensville - where he ultimately would be executed. Turner had reportedly made and stowed weapons in his various cells for more than a decade, sometimes fashioning the weapons from pieces of metal ripped from toilets.
In 1980, he sawed his way to freedom from the Southampton County Jail with a homemade hacksaw.
He also was one of nine inmates who planned the only successful escape from death row in U.S. history, in 1984 at Mecklenburg Correctional Center. Although Turner and two other inmates decided not to take part, Turner had fashioned weapons and hid them in his cell before the escape, according to the diary of one death-row inmate and interviews with others.
Shortly after the execution Thursday night, Corrections Director Ronald Angelone said the members of Smith's family were there ``to put an end to a chapter in their lives.''
Smith's relatives were the first victims' relatives allowed to watch an execution. Gov. George Allen issued an executive order allowing victims' relatives to serve as witnesses after a bill failed to pass the General Assembly.
The victim's family said in a statement late Thursday: ``Turner's act was heinous and cruel, and he never showed any remorse or regret for his criminal behavior. For 17 years, he has exhausted every possible legal avenue to avoid the execution of his sentence. His claims of being treated cruelly, by merely being incarcerated, pale in comparison to the pain and cruelty inflicted on our family by his cold-blood actions. ... Tonight we can move on with our lives knowing that - despite the many delays and frustrations - justice has been determined and carried out.''
Walvick, who worked on Turner's case for seven years, said: ``We spent the last three hours of his life talking about good and evil, and life and death, issues of morality - and all the issues that brought us here in the first place.''
Walvick said Turner's last words to him were: ``I love you, man.''
Earlier Thursday, Turner's sister, Esmon Thompson - a psychiatric nurse who lives in Portsmouth - said, ``It's been a hell of a life, but at least now he's free.''
Turner spent much of his time on death row appealing his case - four times through the state court system and four times through the federal system.
On three occasions, he was taken to the death house to await execution. In 1985, he came within four hours of the electric chair before being granted a last-minute stay.
This time, Turner said, he had been determined not to file any more appeals. But he changed his mind after hearing about a Texas inmate who has spent 17 years on death row. Clarence Allen Lackey won a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court this spring after arguing that such a long confinement violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
That issue, wrote Justice John Paul Stevens, is one of ``importance and novelty'' which should be considered by the courts.
Encouraged by Stevens' words, Turner made a claim similar to Lackey's in April. In addition, he cited unconstitutionally inhumane conditions at the Powhatan and Mecklenburg correctional centers, where he has been held.
Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Turner's execution. It voted 8-1 to deny a stay, with Justice Stevens dissenting.
After Turner heard of the ruling, he said in a telephone interview: ``I'm glad for Jack Smith's family. At least somebody gets some comfort ...''
Virginia has executed 26 inmates since 1976, when capital punishment was reinstated in the United States. Only Texas and Florida have executed more people.
by CNB