RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia's governor said the state must ensure that every time the death penalty is carried out, it is done fairly.
His comments came after he spared the life of convicted killer Robin Lovitt, who would have been the 1,000th person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. In granting clemency, Gov. Mark Warner noted that evidence from the trial had been improperly destroyed. That in turn deprived the defense of the opportunity to subject the material to the latest in DNA testing.
Lovitt's attorneys said they're gratified by the decision to commute their client's death sentence, calling it "entirely proper."
Lovitt was set to be executed by injection for stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors during a pool-hall robbery in 1998. Instead, his sentence has been reduced to life in prison.
Lovitt's lawyers had argued his life should be spared because a court clerk prematurely and illegally destroyed the bloody scissors and other evidence.
That meant no other DNA testing could be done.
Until Tuesday, Mark Warner had never granted clemency in the four years he's been in office.
The execution spotlight now falls on a North Carolina death row inmate convicted in two deaths. Kenneth Lee Boyd is scheduled to die Friday. A spokeswoman said Gov. Mike Easley will treat the execution like others he has considered.
Boyd's family said they're doing all they can to keep him alive.
On Wednesday, Boyd's family will visit him in Raleigh. They told WXII-TV in Winston Salem, N.C., that Boyd is a changed man.
"The closer it gets, the more you think about it," his son, Kenneth Smith, said of Friday's execution date.
Boyd, of Rockingham County, was convicted of killing his estranged wife, Julie Curry Boyd, and her father, Thomas Dillard Curry, in 1988. He is scheduled for execution by injection at 2 a.m. Friday.
Family members said Boyd knows what he did was wrong and that he shouldn't die for the crimes.
"He has grandchildren, they want to see him," said April Young. "Enough killing already went on."
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