Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280099
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Tuggle was sentenced to death in 1984 for the rape and murder of Jessie Geneva Havens, a 52-year-old Marion woman. Tuggle had offered her a ride home from an American Legion dance in 1983. Havens was killed less than four months after Tuggle was paroled for the 1972 killing of Shirley Mullins, 17, whom he also met at an American Legion dance.
During Tuggle's 1984 trial, a psychiatrist testified there was a "high probability" Tuggle would kill again if he ever went free.
Last year, U.S. District Judge James Turk ruled that Tuggle should get a new trial, but was overruled last month by a federal appeals court.
Tuggle's attorney, Timothy Kaine, plans to file a motion for a stay of execution. Kaine said the Sept. 21 execution date was puzzling because Tuggle has until late October to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, attorneys for another death-row inmate blasted the state attorney general's office for doing the same thing - trying to set their client's execution date before the Supreme Court had held a hearing on his appeal.
Dennis Stockton is scheduled to be killed Sept. 27 for the murder of Kenneth Arnder, 18, although the attorney general's office had sought a Sept. 14 execution. A Patrick County judge on Wednesday pushed back Stockton's execution until the day after the high court hears Stockton's appeal on Sept. 26, giving him time to have the case reviewed.
Tuggle is the last survivor among six death-row inmates who staged the largest jailbreak in U.S. history. They posed as security guards and walked out of Mecklenburg Correctional Facility in 1984. All were recaptured and, except for Tuggle, have been executed.
Some information in this story came from The Associated Press.
by CNB