ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610210073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
With 12 murderers scheduled to be put to death by year's end, Virginia is on the verge of legally killing more people in one year than ever, exceeding the five executed in 1993 and in 1995.
Three executions have taken place this year. Five of the 12 pending executions likely will be delayed because federal appeals have not been exhausted, leaving as many as seven executions to be carried out at the Greensville Correctional Center by Dec.18.
Among those scheduled to die is Lem Tuggle, the last survivor of Virginia's death row breakout in 1984.
Virginia's 32 executions since 1982 put it third behind Texas and Florida for the most since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Virginia has 55 men on death row.
The cluster of execution dates is the result of some cases running out of appeals at roughly the same time, and another group of cases being speeded up by a law that took effect last year, officials said.
The new law says that once the Virginia Supreme Court or the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denies an inmate's appeal, either the Virginia attorney general or the commonwealth's attorney can seek an execution date from the trial court. That court must conduct a hearing within 10 days of receiving the request, and the execution date must be set within 60 days of the hearing.
Henry Heller of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said his group ``is outraged at the rate at which the state is proceeding to empty its death row.''
Heller said he blames Attorney General Jim Gilmore for the rush to execution.
Gilmore spokesman Mark Miner said the attorney general is just following the law.
The next execution is scheduled for Wednesday for Christopher Douglas Thomas, who shot to death the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend in 1990 in Middlesex County.
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