DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997           TAG: 9702270460

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY AND ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: JARRATT                           LENGTH:  118 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** Coleman Wayne Gray, who was executed Wednesday, was convicted of killing the manager of a Portsmouth department store. A story Thursday erroneously described Murphy's Mart as a convenience store. Also, the 1985 robbery and kidnapping took place in Portsmouth, not Suffolk, as stated in a summary of the crime; the victim, Richard McClelland, was later shot and killed in Suffolk. Correction published Friday, February 28, 1997 on page A2 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT. ***************************************************************** COLEMAN GRAY PUT TO DEATH BY INJECTION

Coleman Wayne Gray died by injection Wednesday night for the murder of a Portsmouth convenience store manager.

With Gray's death, Virginia moved to second place behind Texas as the state which has carried out the most executions since the modern-day death penalty began.

Gray, who stopped breathing at 9:04 p.m., is the 39th man Virginia has put to death since 1982. Only Texas, with 108 executions, has done more. Florida, Missouri and Louisiana follow at a close pace.

But there is a difference between Virginia and other states with the most executions. Among those states, Virginia - with only 53 condemned prisoners - has the smallest death row population. Texas, with 394 death row inmates, has the largest. Florida has 349; Missouri, 94; and Louisiana, 58.

The relatively small size of the state's death row, recently imposed limitations on state and federal appeals and an aggressive attorney general's office are all factors contributing to the pace at which people are put to death in Virginia, experts say.

``Executions are happening at an expedited pace,'' said Mark Miner, a spokesman for state Attorney General James S. Gilmore III. ``While the prisoners aren't losing their opportunities to appeal, they now have time limits. Justice delayed is justice denied.''

Virginia, said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., ``has clearly been pushing.''

``The have streamlined the process, and there is an effort to move these cases along. In other states with large death rows, the system is overwhelmed. It takes three or four years just to get an attorney to file the direct appeal.''

The reluctance of the state's courts to overturn death sentences is also a factor, Dieter said. The Virginia Supreme Court has never vacated a death sentence. And the court with federal jurisdiction over Virginia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, has done so only once.

Gray's was a case in point.

Convicted in Suffolk for the May 1985 murder of a Portsmouth convenience store manager, Gray appealed unsuccessfully in state court. A federal judge ordered a new sentencing, but the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the order. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case and sent it back to the 4th Circuit for review. Again, the 4th Circuit affirmed Gray's death sentence.

On Wednesday, Gray's lawyers filed a last-ditch motion in U.S. District Court in Richmond. Although he did not grant a stay of execution, Judge James R. Spencer issued an opinion late in the afternoon saying he believes Gray ``did not receive the process that was constitutionally due him at his sentencing hearing.''

``If I believed Mr. Gray had received a fair sentencing hearing, his death at the hands of the state would be accepted without pause,'' wrote the judge.

Suffolk Commonwealth's Attorney C. Phillips Ferguson, who prosecuted Gray in 1985, had no such qualms. Gray, said Ferguson, was ``a criminal machine.''

``I've been a prosecutor for many years, and if there's ever a case that came out of the city of Suffolk that warranted the imposition of the maximum punishment, this is it,'' he said.

``I have no hesitation and no question in my mind that in this case, justice will be served by the carrying out of this punishment.''

Ferguson has been criticized by Gray's lawyers for showing photos of a murdered woman and child to the jury that sentenced Gray. The jury had convicted Gray for killing Richard McClelland, a convenience store manager and father of four.

But at the sentencing, Ferguson introduced photos from the 1984 murders of Lisa and Shanta Sorrell - murders for which Gray was never charged. The crimes were similar, however, in that Lisa Sorrell - like McClelland - had been shot six times in the head. And her car - like McClelland's - had been torched.

Gray's lawyers have argued for years that the Sorrell evidence was inflammatory and may have persuaded the jury to impose the death sentence. But Larry Culbertson, the jury foreman, says the evidence made no difference.

``They brought that up on the last day,'' Culbertson said last week. ``We had already decided he was guilty. We was already going to give him the electric chair.''

Richard McClelland was forced off the road shortly after he left work at a Portsmouth Murphy's Mart in May 1985. He was taken back to the store, where his two abductors robbed the business. He then was driven to the Suffolk campus of Tidewater Community College and shot six times in the head.

Although Gray admitted he was involved in the McClelland killing, he always maintained that it was his co-defendant, Melvin Tucker, who pulled the trigger. Tucker testified against Gray in exchange for a life sentence.

Last week, Gray's lawyers filed a petition in the 4th Circuit containing affidavits from Tucker and other witnesses in the case who now say they lied at Gray's trial.

That petition was denied. Early Wednesday afternoon, Gov. George F. Allen rejected Gray's bid for clemency.

``This case reminds us of why the death penalty is just and proper in certain especially heinous cases,'' Allen said in a statement.

``Richard McClelland was forced to lay on the ground and then he begged for his life so he could remain with his wife and children who needed him so much. But Coleman Wayne Gray ignored his pleas for mercy, and shot him. . . execution style.''

Gray walked trembling into Virginia's execution chamber at 8:55 p.m. Wednesday and was strapped to the guerney by guards. Once injected, he lifted his head, looked from left to right and began breathing heavily. He made no last statement. ILLUSTRATION: Photos

Coleman Wayne Gray

Richard McClelland KEYWORDS: DEATH ROW CAPITAL PUNISHMENT EXECUTION VIRGINIA

LETHAL INJECTION

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