THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 1, 1994 TAG: 9406010509
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOSEPH P. COSCO, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940601 LENGTH: RICHMOND
It has been more than a year since Beecher's daughter, 20-year-old Judy Beecher Greer, was murdered and dismembered at a Norfolk Navy housing complex. But Lisa Beecher and the rest of the family still haven't made their peace with the killing and apparently won't until Virginia takes tougher measures against killers.
{REST} On Tuesday, the Beechers took their crusade to the State Capitol, where they delivered to Allen more than 13,000 petitions supporting expanded use of the death penalty and tighter restrictions on parole.
Although they came away with few promises from the governor, the Beechers said they thought Allen lent a sympathetic ear.
``I'm trying to help the governor to make the laws change,'' Lisa Beecher said after the half-hour meeting with Allen, Attorney General James S. Gilmore III and a large media contingent in the governor's conference room. ``That's his job now.''
Beecher, a Virginia Beach resident, launched the petition drive and has been the moral force behind it. On Tuesday, she also gave Allen copies of letters she has received from President Bill Clinton, U.S. Sen. John Warner, U.S. Rep. Owen Pickett, and state lawmakers.
``I do this because I love you all and I care,'' Lisa Beecher said, flanked by Allen; her husband, Charles; their sons, Tony and Sonny; and 12-year-old Jennifer Skahill, a neighbor who helped gather petitions.
Allen patted the woman on the shoulder and tried to console her.
``Your daughter's violent death hasn't necessarily gone in vain,'' Allen said. ``Your petitions and your efforts, they just fortify and reinforce what we're trying to do . . . What you've done is you've touched a nerve.''
Judy Greer was murdered in late April 1993 in her home at Camp Allen while her husband was on deployment. Mark Christopher Poe, a neighbor, was sentenced in federal court last month to life in prison without parole. Poe was on bond on an unrelated rape charge when he killed Greer and scattered her body parts from Suffolk to Virginia Beach.
State prosecutors could not make a death-penalty case against Poe, so the trial was moved to U.S. District Court to take advantage of the federal system's no-parole policy.
On Tuesday, Allen told the Beechers that the main goal is to abolish parole in the state system when the General Assembly meets in special session in September. ``That is the main problem - the liberal, lenient parole system that we have in Virginia,'' Allen said.
The governor was less direct on the issues of the death penalty and bonds.
In Virginia, the death penalty is limited to murders that have specific aggravating factors, such as rape, robbery, murder-for-hire or the murder of a police officer.
``Why does it have to take a secondary crime to get the death penalty?'' asked Sonny Beecher, Judy's brother. ``That's loathsome at best.''
Allen said he believed it would be constitutional to allow the death penalty for murders that involve mutilation, but he said legislators have defeated bills to expand the death penalty. ``They're slow learners,'' Allen said.
``They need to wake up because it could be their families next,'' Sonny Beecher said.
Allen said he would consider bond reform, but warned there are constitutional limits that forbid excessive bonds. He said judges ``will exercise sounder discretion in judgment'' when setting bonds because of the Greer murder.
``Obviously if (Poe) hadn't be released on bond, then their daughter would be here with us today.'' by CNB