ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997             TAG: 9702110066
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WOODBRIDGE
SOURCE: Associated Press

AFTER HIS DEATH, MURDERER SEEKS FAMILY'S FORGIVENESS

In a letter written just before his death, a man who was executed last week for the sexual torture slaying of a teen-ager asked the victim's parents for forgiveness.

Michael Carl George, in the one-page letter delivered Saturday to Gail and Attila Sztanko, recognized they might not be able to grant his request, Gail Sztanko said.

``If this is something that made it easier for him to accept his fate and allowed him to die with some sense of hope, for that reason alone it has some merit,'' she said Sunday.

The boy's father, however, said the letter didn't erase his anger at the June 1990 killing of his 15-year-old son, Alex.

``I felt just like I did before,'' he said. ``It doesn't help Alex.''

The letter was delivered by a minister. George, 39, was executed Thursday night at the Greensville Correctional Center. George's attorney had said his client planned to write the letter.

Gail Sztanko said it appeared George thought about what he wanted to say for a long time and was trying to express remorse. She did not want the typewritten letter published, out of respect for what she presumed were George's wishes.

``It's going to take some time to get everything in perspective,'' she said.

Alex Sztanko was accosted while riding a motorcycle along a dirt power line trail in Woodbridge. George handcuffed the boy to a tree, sodomized him, used a stun gun to shock his genitals and shot him with a 9mm handgun.

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