Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 12, 1995 TAG: 9508140042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Davidson, a Smyth County man who has expressed frustration over how long it is taking the state to put him to death for killing his wife and two stepdaughters, said this week that he has gone on a hunger strike until an execution date is set.
"I can see no reason for the attorney general's office to delay or postpone the scheduling of an execution date," Davidson wrote in a letter to The Roanoke Times after learning of the Supreme Court decision.
Davidson - who has a history of saying he wants to be executed and then changing his mind - said in the letter that he began the hunger strike Monday. His mother said he told her Friday that he still was not eating.
After Davidson's most recent death wish, Roanoke attorney Tony Anderson asked the Supreme Court to order a mental evaluation of his client to determine if he is competent to make such a decision.
Anderson also filed a request that Davidson's death sentence be overturned, arguing that his previous lawyer made mistakes during the trial, including not exploring the effects of Davidson's alcohol use during the crime.
But the Supreme Court denied both requests without comment, ruling in a one-sentence order that it had found "no merit in [Davidson's] claims of ineffective assistance of counsel."
A spokesman with the attorney general's office said Friday that the office will ask a Smyth County judge to set an execution date. Anderson was out of his office Friday and could not be reached for comment.
Davidson, 38, pleaded guilty to killing his wife, Doris Davidson, 36, and his two stepdaughters, 14-year-old Mamie Clatterbuck and 13-year-old Tammy Clatterbuck, at their Saltville home in 1990.
He admitted using a crowbar to bludgeon the three as they were preparing to leave the Saltville home to live with the girls' father in Northern Virginia.
At least twice before, Davidson has asked that his appeals be dropped. Execution dates were scheduled, and he was moved to within a few feet of the electric chair at the Greensville Correctional Center before he changed his mind and restarted his appeals.
In asking for a mental evaluation, Anderson cited Davidson's indecision.
But in a June interview at the Mecklenburg Correctional Center, Davidson insisted that this time, there will be no turning back.
"I see no reason for them not to execute me," he said at the time. "I don't see how they have the right to keep me here against my wishes."
by CNB