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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 15, 1995                   TAG: 9509150081
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

COURT LEAVES TUGGLE'S EXECUTION-STAY IN FORCE

A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a federal appeals court improperly granted a stay of execution for Lem D. Tuggle Jr., but the high court kept the stay in place temporarily.

Tuggle, the last living participant in the largest death-row escape in U.S. history, is scheduled to be put to death Sept. 21.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court said the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stay ``was improvidently granted.'' However, the court said the stay ``shall remain in effect until Sept. 20, 1995, to allow Tuggle's counsel opportunity to seek a further stay in this court.''

Tuggle's lawyer, Timothy Kaine, did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press.

The Supreme Court majority said that in considering the stay, the federal appeals panel did not follow procedures the high court outlined in a 1983 case.

Tuggle has spent the last 10 years on death row for the slaying of Jessie Havens, a Smyth County woman he met at a dance.

Tuggle was one of six prisoners who escaped May 31, 1984, from the Mecklenburg Correctional Center. The other five have since been executed.

by CNB