Governor Warner noted that “capital punishment is the
Commonwealth’s most severe and final sanction. The system must
operate with complete integrity and with the confidence of
Virginians.” He commuted Lovitt’s sentence to life imprisonment
because “the destruction of evidence by an agent of the
Commonwealth breached the public trust in the system, and the
Commonwealth must therefore bear the burden of its agent’s
mistake.” Courts had rejected Lovitt’s legal claims about evidence
Gesrerciom Keine: fegs ea Giatildte ‘Ganesrohf of] the public trust” and
indisputable failure of the capital punishment system to “operate
with complete integrity.” Indeed, Powell’s case raises far more serious
questions about the tainted motivations for the prosecutor’s actions than
were raised in Lovitt’s case. When Powell was first tried for capital murder,
the very same prosecutors offered actual certified copies of Powell’s prior
convictions for misdemeanor offenses. The Supreme Court of Virginia,
however, found the prosecutors’ evidence insufficient to prove capital
murder and reversed the conviction. After the reversal, Powell wrote an
offensive and taunting letter to the prosecutors and the victim’s mother
which prosecutors used to charge Powell with another capital crime for the
same killing. At the second trial, without explanation, prosecutors replaced
the certified copies with the expanded “record” of alleged criminal
conduct, including the multiple false capital murder convictions and
references to inadmissible criminal charges. Prosecutors then successfully
asked jurors to sentence Powell to death based on his “past criminal
fac éad”asvPoviabisghe pin icktinces pa oyid ach \falsersond imac! trézsib peut to
death in Virginia after three sitting Justices have expressed concern that
the execution “may well cause the public to question whether our courts
adequately ensure the fair application of our death penalty statutes.” In
2007, Governor Kaine commuted the death sentence of Percy Levar
Walton, where the federal court of appeals rejected claims that Walton was
incompetent in a narrow 7-6 decision.
Powell is scheduled to be executed on July 14, 2009, at 9:00 p.m. at
Greensville Correction Center in Jarratt, Virginia.
Powell’s clemency petition to the Governor, his petition to the United
States Supreme Court, Governor Warner’s Clemency decision in Lovitt, and
several audio interviews with lawyers regarding the error in this case are
available at: www.devineconnell.com
