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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995                   TAG: 9507190071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

NOW DEATH ROW BLADE, TOO?

State police investigators found a hacksaw blade in the typewriter that sat outside Willie Lloyd Turner's cell - well within his reach - in Virginia's death house, sources told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

It was the same typewriter in which Turner's lawyer said he found a loaded .32-caliber revolver and extra ammunition about an hour after Turner's May 25 execution.

One source, whom the newspaper did not identify in its story today, said the hacksaw blade was found well after the Department of Corrections had completed its investigation in May.

Officials refused comment, citing the ongoing state police investigation.

``We can't confirm or deny that information. We ... don't want to get into the position of giving out evidence whether it was found or not found, at this juncture,'' Public Safety Secretary Jerry Kilgore said late Tuesday.

``Nothing that that man would ever do would surprise me,'' said Walter J. Walvick, Turner's lawyer. Some state officials suggested Walvick might have placed the gun he said he found there, a charge he has denied.

Walvick said he knew nothing about a blade inside the typewriter.

Gov. George Allen and Ronald Angelone, head of the Department of Corrections, initially suggested the gun may have been planted as part of a hoax after the typewriter left the prison.

A 36-hour investigation by Angelone's department concluded there was no evidence the gun had ever been inside the Greensville Correctional Facility. But a few days later, Allen ordered a state police investigation.

by CNB