ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997 TAG: 9702270084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: JARRATT
SOURCE: LAURA LAFAY AND ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITERS
Coleman Wayne Gray died by injection Wednesday night for the murder of a Portsmouth convenience store manager.
With his death, Virginia moved to second place behind Texas as the state that has carried out the most executions since the modern-day death penalty began.
Gray, who stopped breathing at 9:04 p.m., is the 39th man Virginia has put to death since 1982. Only Texas, with 108 executions, has executed more. Florida, Missouri and Louisiana follow at a close pace.
Virginia - with only 53 condemned prisoners - has the smallest death row population among those states with the most executions. Texas, with 394 condemned inmates, has the largest. Florida has 349; Missouri, 94; and Louisiana, 58.
The relatively small size of the state's death row, recently imposed limitations on state and federal appeals and an aggressive attorney general's office are all factors contributing to the pace at which people are put to death in Virginia, experts said.
``Executions are happening at an expedited pace,'' said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Attorney General Jim Gilmore. ``While the prisoners aren't losing their opportunities to appeal, they now have time limits. Justice delayed is justice denied.''
Virginia, said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, ``has clearly been pushing.''
``They have streamlined the process, and there is an effort to move these cases along. In other states with large death rows, the system is overwhelmed. It takes three or four years just to get an attorney to file the direct appeal.''
The reluctance of the state's courts to overturn death sentences is also a factor, Dieter said. The Virginia Supreme Court has never vacated a death sentence. And the court with federal jurisdiction over Virginia, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has done so only once.
Gray's was a case in point.
Convicted in Suffolk of the May 1985 murder of a Portsmouth convenience store manager, Gray appealed unsuccessfully in state court. A federal judge ordered a new sentencing, but the 4th Circuit threw out the order. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case and sent it back to the 4th Circuit for review. Again, the 4th Circuit affirmed Gray's death sentence.
On Wednesday, Gray's lawyers filed a last-ditch motion in U.S. District Court in Richmond. Although he did not grant a stay of execution, Judge James Spencer issued an opinion late in the afternoon saying he believed Gray ``did not receive the process that was constitutionally due him at his sentencing hearing.''
Suffolk Commonwealth's Attorney Phillips Ferguson, who prosecuted Gray in 1985, had no such qualms. Gray, said Ferguson, was ``a criminal machine.''
``I've been a prosecutor for many years, and if there's ever a case that came out of the city of Suffolk that warranted the imposition of the maximum punishment, this is it,'' he said.
``I have no hesitation and no question in my mind that in this case, justice will be served by the carrying out of this punishment.''
Ferguson has been criticized by Gray's lawyers for showing photos of a murdered woman and child to the jury that sentenced Gray. The jury had convicted Gray of killing Richard McClelland, a convenience store manager and father of four.
At the sentencing, Ferguson introduced photos from the 1984 murders of Lisa and Shanta Sorrell - murders for which Gray was never charged. The crimes were similar, however, in that Lisa Sorrell - like McClelland - had been shot six times in the head. And her car - like McClelland's - had been torched.
Gray's lawyers have argued for years that the Sorrell evidence was inflammatory and may have persuaded the jury to impose the death sentence. But Larry Culbertson, the jury foreman, says the evidence made no difference.
``They brought that up on the last day,'' Culbertson said last week. ``We had already decided he was guilty. We was already going to give him the electric chair.''
Richard McClelland was forced off the road shortly after he left work at a Portsmouth Murphy's Mart in May 1985. He was taken back to the store, where his two abductors robbed the business. He then was driven to the Suffolk campus of Tidewater Community College and shot six times in the head.
Although Gray admitted he was involved in the McClelland killing, he always maintained that it was his co-defendant, Melvin Tucker, who pulled the trigger. Tucker testified against Gray in exchange for a life sentence.
Last week, Gray's lawyers filed a petition in the 4th Circuit containing affidavits from Tucker and other witnesses in the case who now say they lied at Gray's trial.
That petition was denied. Early Wednesday afternoon, Gov. George Allen rejected Gray's bid for clemency.
Gray walked trembling into Virginia's execution chamber at 8:55 p.m. Wednesday and was strapped to the gurney by guards. Once injected, he lifted his head, looked from left to right and began breathing heavily. He made no last statement.
EXECUTIONS SINCE 1976
With Wednesday's execution of murderer Coleman Wayne Gray, Virginia now has put to death more criminals than any other state except one since the U.S. Supreme Court re-insitituted the death penalty.
1. Texas 108
2. Virginia 39
3. Florida 38
4. Missouri 24
5. Louisiana 23
EXECUTIONS LAST YEAR
In 1996, Virginia led the nation in executions.
1. Virginia 8
2. Missouri 6
South Carolina 6
3. Texas 3
Delaware 3
So far this year, Virginia has put to death two prisoners; Arkansas leads the nation with three.
Source: Death Penalty Information Center
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines KEYWORDS: EXECUTIONby CNB