THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 30, 1995 TAG: 9506300463
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling and reinstated the death sentence of Coleman Wayne Gray for the 1985 murder of a Portsmouth store manager.
Last year, after a lengthy hearing, U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer ruled that the sentencing phase of Gray's trial was flawed because evidence was introduced that tied Gray to other slayings for which he had never been charged.
Spencer ruled that Gray was ``ambushed'' by the prosecution and ordered a new sentencing.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, however, ruled Wednesday that the evidence was proper because it gave the jury information about Gray's potential for posing as a future danger to society.
A Virginia jury has never been restricted to proof of adjudicated criminal convictions; rather, ``the commonwealth may introduce evidence of criminal misconduct for which the defendant had been neither tried nor convicted,'' the court ruled.
Gray, then 28, was convicted in December 1985 of murdering Richard McClelland, 49, manager of a Murphy's Mart in Portsmouth. Gray robbed the store and abducted McClelland, who was later shot six times in the head.
Gray admitted playing a part in the robbery and abduction but said an accomplice shot the man.
KEYWORDS: SHOOTING MURDER CAPITAL PUNISHMENT VIRGINIA
DEATH ROW by CNB