RICHMOND -
If not for a four-page letter scribbled
with hatred and ridicule, Paul Warner Powell likely would have
served a life sentence in prison.
Instead, the 31-year-old is scheduled to die Thursday in
Virginia's electric chair. The reason: He bragged to prosecutors - once he thought he could no longer face the death penalty - about how he tried to rape his teenage friend before he stabbed her to death.
Powell was convicted in 2000 of fatally stabbing 16-year-old Stacie Reed of Manassas. He also was found guilty of an attack on her 14-year-old sister, Kristie, in which he raped, stabbed and choked her, slit her throat and left her for dead. Kristie survived and testified against Powell.
Powell was sentenced to die, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned his conviction. The court ruled that killing Stacie without also trying to rape, rob or commit some other crime against her didn't qualify for the death penalty under Virginia law. Thinking he could no longer face death, Powell then penned a profanity-laced letter taunting Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert.
In his letter, the self-avowed racist said he confronted Stacie about having a black boyfriend, tried to rape her and then stabbed her when she fought back, stomping on her throat until she quit breathing. Afterward, he went downstairs, smoked a cigarette, drank some iced tea and waited for her younger sister to come home from school.
"Do you just hate yourself for being so stupid and for (messing) up and saving me?" he wrote Ebert.
Ebert threw out Powell's earlier indictment and charged him with killing and attempting to rape Stacie - which made him eligible for a death sentence. Powell was retried and convicted in 2003 and sentenced to die.
"I'm sure he is sorry that he ever wrote that letter," said Ebert, who plans to witness the execution with Stacie's family.
Kristie and Lorraine Whoberry, the girls' mother, traveled to Richmond in July for Powell's execution, but the U.S. Supreme Court granted him a reprieve while it considered whether to take up his argument that he was unconstitutionally tried twice for the same crime. In January, the court declined to hear his argument.
To be so close and to have the execution pushed back was heartbreaking, said Whoberry, who lives in Cincinnati.
"They come along and they jerk the rug right out from under you over and over again," she said. "We have no choice but to keep going through this, to keep standing up for what little rights we have. It's brutality to the victims."
Like Ebert, Whoberry received taunting letters from Powell while he was in jail.
"That kind of a person doesn't need to be on earth, in my opinion," Ebert said. "That's the reason we have the death penalty, to keep people from continuing to torment their victim."
Powell's attorney acknowledges the condemned man's "obnoxious" behavior.
"Powell has never denied that he murdered Stacie Reed, nor has he denied that his behavior has been extremely bizarre and obnoxious in this case," attorney Jonathan Sheldon wrote in a clemency petition to Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Powell's attorneys had asked McDonnell to let someone else make the decision because McDonnell, as attorney general, had opposed Powell's state and federal appeals.
McDonnell, who resigned as attorney general last year to run for governor, denied the clemency request on Friday. Barring a last-minute appeal to the courts, the execution is set for 9 p.m. Thursday at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Sheldon said it was unlikely he would file a new court challenge.
Powell has decided to die by electrocution rather than lethal injection because he is concerned the Department of Corrections would not correctly administer the three-drug lethal cocktail, Sheldon said. Larry Bill Elliott also chose electrocution when he was executed in Virginia last November.
Of the 35 death penalty states, seven Southern states still authorize electrocution.
Whoberry said she knows Powell's death is not going to bring Stacie back or erase what happened to Kristie, now 25 and living in
Texas. The Associated Press doesn't usually identify victims of sexual assault, but Kristie gave permission for her name to be used.
"I forgive him, but I've not forgotten," Whoberry said. "These are the choices he's made. Justice will be served."
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Instead, the 31-year-old is scheduled to die Thursday in
Virginia's electric chair. The reason: He bragged to prosecutors - once he thought he could no longer face the death penalty - about how he tried to rape his teenage friend before he stabbed her to death.
Powell was convicted in 2000 of fatally stabbing 16-year-old Stacie Reed of Manassas. He also was found guilty of an attack on her 14-year-old sister, Kristie, in which he raped, stabbed and choked her, slit her throat and left her for dead. Kristie survived and testified against Powell.
Powell was sentenced to die, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned his conviction. The court ruled that killing Stacie without also trying to rape, rob or commit some other crime against her didn't qualify for the death penalty under Virginia law. Thinking he could no longer face death, Powell then penned a profanity-laced letter taunting Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert.
In his letter, the self-avowed racist said he confronted Stacie about having a black boyfriend, tried to rape her and then stabbed her when she fought back, stomping on her throat until she quit breathing. Afterward, he went downstairs, smoked a cigarette, drank some iced tea and waited for her younger sister to come home from school.
"Do you just hate yourself for being so stupid and for (messing) up and saving me?" he wrote Ebert.
Ebert threw out Powell's earlier indictment and charged him with killing and attempting to rape Stacie - which made him eligible for a death sentence. Powell was retried and convicted in 2003 and sentenced to die.
"I'm sure he is sorry that he ever wrote that letter," said Ebert, who plans to witness the execution with Stacie's family.
Kristie and Lorraine Whoberry, the girls' mother, traveled to Richmond in July for Powell's execution, but the U.S. Supreme Court granted him a reprieve while it considered whether to take up his argument that he was unconstitutionally tried twice for the same crime. In January, the court declined to hear his argument.
To be so close and to have the execution pushed back was heartbreaking, said Whoberry, who lives in Cincinnati.
"They come along and they jerk the rug right out from under you over and over again," she said. "We have no choice but to keep going through this, to keep standing up for what little rights we have. It's brutality to the victims."
Like Ebert, Whoberry received taunting letters from Powell while he was in jail.
"That kind of a person doesn't need to be on earth, in my opinion," Ebert said. "That's the reason we have the death penalty, to keep people from continuing to torment their victim."
Powell's attorney acknowledges the condemned man's "obnoxious" behavior.
"Powell has never denied that he murdered Stacie Reed, nor has he denied that his behavior has been extremely bizarre and obnoxious in this case," attorney Jonathan Sheldon wrote in a clemency petition to Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Powell's attorneys had asked McDonnell to let someone else make the decision because McDonnell, as attorney general, had opposed Powell's state and federal appeals.
McDonnell, who resigned as attorney general last year to run for governor, denied the clemency request on Friday. Barring a last-minute appeal to the courts, the execution is set for 9 p.m. Thursday at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Sheldon said it was unlikely he would file a new court challenge.
Powell has decided to die by electrocution rather than lethal injection because he is concerned the Department of Corrections would not correctly administer the three-drug lethal cocktail, Sheldon said. Larry Bill Elliott also chose electrocution when he was executed in Virginia last November.
Of the 35 death penalty states, seven Southern states still authorize electrocution.
Whoberry said she knows Powell's death is not going to bring Stacie back or erase what happened to Kristie, now 25 and living in
Texas. The Associated Press doesn't usually identify victims of sexual assault, but Kristie gave permission for her name to be used.
"I forgive him, but I've not forgotten," Whoberry said. "These are the choices he's made. Justice will be served."
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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