THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260504
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY AND LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: JARRATT, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Willie Lloyd Turner, who inhabited Virginia's death row longer than any other inmate in modern times, was executed by lethal injection Thursday night while two members of his victim's family looked on.
A prison official pronounced him dead at 9:07 p.m. in the death chamber at Greensville Correctional Center.
Turner, 49, was executed for the 1978 murder of William J. ``Jack'' Smith Jr., a Franklin jewelry store owner. Smith was 54 when Turner entered his shop and shot him in the head during an attempted robbery.
At 8:53 p.m., a door to the death chamber opened, and Turner walked in, escorted by six men. He was wearing a light-blue, short-sleeve shirt and a pair of new, rolled-up jeans.
Fourteen witnesses, including the two unidentified relatives of Smith, watched from a room adjoining the gray cinderblock death chamber.
Turner lay on a cross-shaped gurney and was fastened down with leather straps. He raised his head briefly and looked at the witnesses.
At 8:57, a guard closed a dark-blue curtain, blocking the witnesses' view of the condemned man. At 9:03, the curtain was reopened. Turner was asked whether he wanted to make a statement; he shook his head.
Intravenous tubes had been taped to each arm. Turner's eyes were open, and he appeared to mouth a few words.
At 9:04, he closed his eyes.
A series of three chemicals, injected one by one, was used to kill him. Officials would not identify them.
At 9:07, the chief deputy warden, C.D. Larsen, walked from behind the curtain and announced that a doctor had declared Turner dead.
One of the witnesses, who refused to identify himself but said he has been with the Department of Corrections for 30 years, said, ``The damned bastard escaped the electric chair.''
The curtain was closed, and at 9:10, the witnesses were asked to leave. Turner was the second Virginia inmate to be executed by lethal injection since it became an alternative to electrocution in the past year.
The members of Smith's family were there ``to put an end to a chapter in their lives,'' said Corrections Director Ronald Angelone.
In the final minutes of his life, Turner ``was mumbling different things,'' Angelone said. ``It was just nervous energy, like, `When will it start? How will it feel?' ''
Smith's relatives were the first victims' relatives allowed to watch an execution. Gov. George F. Allen issued an executive order allowing victims' relatives to serve as witnesses after a bill failed to pass the General Assembly.
Walter Walvick, Turner's Washington attorney, who has worked on the case for seven years, said: ``We spent the last three hours of his life talking about good and evil, and life and death, issues of morality - and all the issues that brought us here in the first place.''
Walvick said Turner's last words to him were: ``I love you, man.''
Earlier Thursday, Turner's sister, Esmon Thompson - a psychiatric nurse who lives in Portsmouth - said, ``It's been a hell of a life, but at least now he's free.''
Turner was on death row for 15 years, spending most of those years appealing his case - four times through the state court system and four times through the federal system.
On three occasions, he was taken to the death house to await execution. In 1985, he came within four hours of the electric chair before being granted a last-minute stay.
This time, Turner said, he had been determined not to file any more appeals. But he changed his mind after hearing about a Texas inmate who has spent 17 years on death row. Clarence Allen Lackey won a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court this spring after arguing that such a long confinement violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
That issue, wrote Justice John Paul Stevens, is one of ``importance and novelty'' which should be considered by the courts.
Encouraged by Stevens' words, Turner made a claim similar to Lackey's in April. In addition, he cited unconstitutionally inhumane conditions at the Powhatan and Mecklenburg correctional centers, where he has been held.
Reaction from the federal judges who reviewed Turner's petitions ranged from sarcasm to fury.
``It is a mockery of our system of justice, and an affront to law-abiding citizens . . . for a convicted murderer, who, through his own interminable efforts of delay and systemic abuse, has secured the almost-indefinite postponement of his sentence, to then claim that the almost-indefinite postponement renders his sentence unconstitutional,'' wrote a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge, J. Michael Luttig.
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Turner's execution. It voted 8-1 to deny a stay, with Justice Stevens dissenting.
After Turner heard of the ruling, he said in a telephone interview: ``I'm glad for Jack Smith's family. At least somebody gets some comfort. . . ''
Virginia has now executed 26 inmates since 1976, when capital punishment was reinstated in the United States. Only Texas and Florida have executed more people. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Willie Lloyd Turner
KEYWORDS: DEATH ROW CAPITAL PUNISHMENT VIRGINIA MURDER
EXECUTION by CNB