ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 6, 1996 TAG: 9612060051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press|
Death row inmate Joseph Roger O'Dell III has chosen to die in the electric chair instead of by injection, a state Corrections Department spokesman said Thursday.
Unless he wins an appeal or clemency, O'Dell will become the first Virginia inmate put to death by electrocution since Timothy Wayne Spencer on April 27, 1994.
O'Dell is scheduled to die Dec. 18 for the February 1985 murder of Helen Schartner of Virginia Beach.
A law that took effect Jan. 1, 1995, allows Virginia death row inmates to choose electrocution or injection. If they refuse to state a preference at least 15 days before the execution, the state auto- matically uses injection.
The 10 inmates executed since the law took effect have died by injection.
Corrections Department spokesman David Botkins said O'Dell selected electrocution a few days ago, then reaffirmed his decision Monday. Once the decision is reaffirmed, it cannot be changed.
``It's set in stone now,'' Botkins said.
He said O'Dell gave no reason for choosing electrocution.
O'Dell's attorney, Robert Smith of New York, refused to comment on his client's decision. A request for a telephone interview with O'Dell was forwarded through prison officials.
Three other Virginia prisoners are scheduled to die before O'Dell: Larry Stout on Dec. 10, Lem Tuggle on Dec. 12 and Ronald Hoke on Dec. 16. Those three have chosen injection, Botkins said.
He said the electrocution will pose no problems for prison officials, even though the chair has not been used in more than two years. Both the electric chair and the equipment used for lethal injections are in the same death room at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.
O'Dell is among the state's most high-profile inmates. Among his supporters is Sister Helen Prejean, the Louisiana nun who wrote ``Dead Man Walking.''
O'Dell has maintained his innocence, saying he was at a nightclub where Schartner was murdered but that he never approached the woman.
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