THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 TAG: 9702050005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 43 lines
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled many years ago that a criminal conviction is not final until the appeals process has been exhausted.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that if a person dies while appealing a criminal conviction, that conviction is overturned.
These are ``legal technicalities'' - the stuff of long law-school lectures.
But the case of John Salvi illustrates what happens when legal principles come face to face with emotional victims and a politically explosive issue such as abortion-clinic violence.
Salvi was the man who shot and killed two Massachusetts abortion-clinic workers in December 1994 - and who was later arrested in Norfolk after shooting up the Hillcrest Clinic. Salvi was convicted of first-degree murder by a Massachusetts jury and was serving two life sentences when he took his own life in his jail cell last November.
Carefully following established legal principles, the trial judge dismissed Salvi's murder convictions last week.
The families of the victims are outraged: ``It's as if John Salvi is coming from the grave to bring me some hurt,'' said the still-grieving mother of one of Salvi's victims.
Massachusetts Gov. William Weld echoed those sentiments: ``It flies in the face of common sense.''
What flies in the face of common sense is any time, money or effort spent trying to reinstate a murder conviction on a dead man.
But the governor has pledged to do just that. If reinstatement fails, Weld said he supports legislation to retain convictions against convicts who commit suicide while their cases are on appeal.
Salvi was a deeply disturbed man who committed awful acts of brutality. Nearly two years later he administered the death penalty to himself.
The Salvi case is a tragedy for all involved. But it matters not a whit whether John Salvi was or was not a convicted murderer when he went to meet his maker last year.
Salvi's case illustrates what happens when victims' rights run amok: He is not returning from the grave to haunt the victims. They are tormenting themselves, bent on unachievable retribution.