ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
Two jurors who voted to give Richard Townes Jr. a death sentence for killing a store clerk say they would have insisted on life in prison if they had known he couldn't be paroled with a life sentence, Townes' attorney said Monday.
Townes is to die by lethal injection tonight at Greensville Correctional Center, barring a court stay or favorable action by Gov. George Allen on a clemency request.
David Wadyka, a Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center lawyer, said a pair of requests for a stay of execution have been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, one challenging a new state law requiring that executions be set within 60 days of final appeals.
Townes is pursuing an appeal challenging a case used by his trial jury to decide he represented a future danger to society.
He was tried in 1985 for the execution-style killing of Virginia Goebel, 32, during a convenience store robbery.
Last weekend, two of the jurors submitted affidavits that said they wouldn't have called for the death penalty if they had known Townes could never be released because he was a multiple felon, Wadyka said.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 33 linesby CNB