Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509280058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: JARRATT LENGTH: Medium
Stockton was declared dead in the Greensville Correctional Center death chamber at 9:09 p.m. He had no final statement, according to Wayne Brown, the prison's operations officers.
Instead, Stockton recited Isaiah 26:3, ``Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed in thee, because he trusteth in thee.''
Stockton was expressionless when he entered the death chamber. He was dressed in a light-blue short-sleeved shirt, dark blue trousers, rubber shower shoes and white socks. He asked a guard to remove his glasses as he was strapped into a gurney.
As the lethal injection was administered, Stockton's eyes remained opened for a moment, then closed. He swallowed once and lay perfectly still.
Less than three hours earlier, the high court voted 8-0 without comment to deny Stockton's final appeal. Shortly after 7:45 p.m., Allen announced he would not grant Stockton clemency.
A Patrick County Circuit Court jury convicted Stockton, 54, of the murder of Kenneth Arnder. The 18-year-old was shot in the back of the head, both hands were cut off and his body was dumped in Surry County, N.C. Police said they believed the killing was drug-related.
At Stockton's 1983 trial, Roger G. Bowman testified that he witnessed Stockton accept a $1,500 contract on Arnder's life. Bowman's was the only testimony to link Stockton to the crime. The man alleged to have paid Stockton the money was later arrested, but never went to trial in connection with Arnder's death.
Stockton's attorneys had sought in federal court over the past week to delay the execution so they could present affidavits from three people who claim Bowman killed Arnder.
In the affidavits, Bowman's ex-wife, his son and a former friend all said Bowman bragged of killing Arnder and provided details of the slaying. Stockton's lawyers persuaded U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser in Roanoke to issue a 60-day stay Monday to hear evidence on the affidavits.
Arnder was killed sometime between July 20, 1978, when his mother last saw him alive, and July 25, 1978, when his body was found.
The state attorney general's office provided an affidavit from the Surry County sheriff that Bowman was in jail during that time period.
That affidavit proved decisive to a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, which overturned Stockton's stay Tuesday.
The appeals judges also questioned the credibility of Bowman's three accusers, noting that their claims had never been subjected to cross-examination and were not eyewitness accounts. They also said that Stockton's lawyers were presenting their claims 12 years after the trial.
Such a claim, the court said, ``reflects a formula for 11th-hour relief that is increasingly common in capital cases.
``Last-minute stays on the part of the federal court represents interference with the orderly processes of justice, which should be avoided in all but the most extraordinary circumstances.''
Ken Stroupe, an Allen spokesman, said the governor sent the Virginia State Police to interview the Surry County sheriff on Tuesday and to examine records to verify that Bowman had been jailed at the time of Arnder's slaying.
``The governor carefully weighed the information provided by Mr. Stockton's attorneys ... as well as the numerous court decisions ... and other relevant information. ... Governor Allen has concluded that there is no reasonable factual basis for intervening,'' Stroupe said.
Outside the prison, four people from the Richmond Peace Center conducted a candlelight vigil as the execution hour approached. John Gallini said he came ``to be witness to our state killing.''
Gallini said the evidence pointing to another possible killer was just another argument against the death penalty. ``But basically, you can't stop murder by doing murders,'' he said.
by CNB