DATE: Friday, August 1, 1997                TAG: 9708010707

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   63 lines

O'DELL BURIED WITH HONORS IN ITALY A MONUMENT IS PLANNED FOR BEACH WOMAN'S KILLER.

Executed killer Joseph Roger O'Dell III was buried Thursday in front of 300 people in Palermo, Sicily, where the mayor declared him an honorary citizen and a gravestone declared him the victim of a ``merciless and brutal justice system.''

Palermo Mayor Leoluca Orlando comforted O'Dell's wife, Lori Urs, a former member of his defense team who married the convict eight hours before the death sentence was carried out.

Orlando was among those who had met with Virginia Gov. George F. Allen for a last-minute appeal. He said a monument in O'Dell's memory would be erected in his city.

A day before the service, Pope John Paul II greeted Urs' arrival in Italy and offered his prayers.

O'Dell's July 23 execution came 12 years after he murdered Virginia Beach secretary Helen Schartner. The honors in Sicily didn't sit well with some involved in the case here.

``It is very, very disturbing that the Italian government would totally bypass and disregard our system to make a serial rapist and murderer a hero,'' said Virginia Beach homicide Detective Steve Dunn, who caught and prosecuted O'Dell, and watched him die in the state's death chamber last week.

``They're basically snubbing their noses at our justice system and saying it doesn't work,'' he said. ``I can understand them being against the death penalty. That's a personal and religious choice. But, to my knowledge, none of the Italians have asked to see all of the evidence before making their decision.

``It is very, very disturbing the way they are handling this.''

O'Dell was buried in a 600-year-old cemetery filled with the remains of assassinated mobsters and the mobsters' victims.

``We don't know if you are innocent of the crime you were executed for, and we don't care,'' said the Rev. Pietro Sorci at the Roman Catholic funeral Mass. ``We are not here to judge you or those who condemned you.''

The Italian government and many of the country's citizens mounted a furious and futile campaign to save O'Dell in the last days of his life. In the moments before O'Dell's death, Italian journalists covering the execution scrambled to broadcast a final, live plea to stop the execution.

O'Dell asked to be buried in Italy, and the city of Palermo paid the costs. A Palermo resident donated the plot.

Emily Capps, Schartner's mother, has grown weary of the killer's notoriety.

``I just want it over with,'' said Emily Capps, the mother of Schartner. ``They (the Italian government) talk so much about the death penalty and who has the right to do it, but I wonder if they think he had the right when he imposed and carried out the death penalty on Helen. With all the torture he inflicted on her, his penalty was painless.''

O'Dell's gravestone bore an inscription in English and Italian: ``Honorary citizen of Palermo killed by Virginia, USA, in a merciless and brutal justice system.''

MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS

Joseph Roger O'Dell's widow, Lori Urs, sends him a kiss at his

grave in Palermo, Sicily. The stone says O'Dell was ``killed by

Virginia, USA, in a merciless and brutal justice system.'' KEYWORDS: JOSEPH ROGER O'DELL EXECUTION BURIAL ITALY

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu