THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 11, 1995 TAG: 9505100008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Because a key witness has changed his story, we can no longer be certain that condemned inmate Dennis W. Stockton murdered Kenneth Wayne Arnder, 18, in 1978, and did it for money.
We probably will be kept from certainty by a Virginia law requiring that new evidence be introduced within 21 days of conviction. No other state affords defendants so little time to introduce new evidence of innocence - even evidence suppressed by the prosecution.
Staff writers June Arney and Joe Jackson wrote that the law has ``led experts to call Virginia the worst state in the nation for both unfair trials and a lack of due process protection - even when considerable doubt concerning an inmate's guilt is found.''
Stockton was convicted a dozen years ago of capital murder - a jury was certain then - and his execution date probably will be set soon, whether or not his guilt is in question.
Although Randy G. Bowman, a key witness at Stockton's trial, recently recanted his testimony, the 21-day deadline for new evidence was past by more than a decade. Similarly, two former sheriff's officials' affidavits that Bowman thought he would receive favors in exchange for his testimony against Stockton cannot be introduced now, because of the deadline.
What made Arnder's murder punishable by death was Bowman's testimony that he heard Stockton agree to commit the crime for pay. Without that testimony, even if Stockton had been convicted of murder (and he might not have), he would not have been sentenced to die. Only Bowman said the murder was for hire.
Stockton never claimed to be an angel. There's an outstanding warrant against him for a second murder. (A trial on that charge would have been pointless, since he was sentenced to die in the Arnder case.)
Still, it is wrong to execute a man whose guilt is in question. An October 1993 U.S. House Judiciary Committee report said that 48 innocent men had been freed from death rows across the nation since 1972. Twenty-five of the men ``were convicted on the basis of perjured testimony or because the prosecutor improperly withheld exculpatory evidence,'' the report said. It added, ``Innocent persons are still being sentenced to death, and the chances are high that innocent persons have been or will be executed.''
On Wednesday, Stockton's lawyers filed papers asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the trial records to determine if there were irregularities in the Stockton case. The chances the court will say yes are slim. The public mood is to execute criminals sooner, not later, and the court is aware of the public's position.
Whether Stockton committed capital murder or not, he was found guilty of it, and who can tell which time the witness lied - then or now? He has no reason to lie now.
In 1994, Del. Clifton A. Woodrum, D-Roanoke, introduced a bill to change the 21-day rule to allow introduction of evidence up to 60 days before execution, but the bill was defeated. Had it passed, the new evidence in Stockton's case could have been heard before a judge in open court, and Bowman, the key witness, could have testified under penalty of perjury.
The bill should have passed.
As things stand, if Stockton is executed, as seems ever more likely, the state of Virginia may have participated in a miscarriage of justice.
KEYWORDS: DEATH ROW MURDER CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DENNIS W. STOCKTON
by CNB