Robin Lovitt
Josh:
Checking my W&L e-mail today (an infrequent occurrence over the summer), I found a somewhat out of the ordinary e-mail. I'd seen the Post article, but, as usual, a friend of mine sums it up better than I can; does more than I can.
Hey All,
I just heard ("just" because I've had a hard time paying attention to life in Virginia this summer) that Robin Lovitt's execution is scheduled for 9:00 tonight. As many of you know, there are some serious questions about Lovitt's guilt, but everyone involved has hard a difficult time answering those questions because the court clerk destroyed all of the evidence in the court files after the supreme court of Virginia denied Robin's direct appeal. That evidence included DNA evidence that could have exonerated Robin. Other problems with the case include the fact that the Commonwealth relied on evidence that Robin stabbed the pool room cashier with scissors, but they only had the medical examiner check look at scissors that were similar to those they claimed to be the murder weapon, not the actual scissors. The examiner also stated later that the wounds were inconsistent with the type of scissors they claimed to be the murder weapon. Basically, for Robin to have killed the clerk the way they claimed, there would have had to have been more tissue compression around the wounds. The blades just weren't long enough to have produced the wound the victim recieved without further damage. Unfortunately, the defense team never got that evidence. Basically, there's a ton of stuff that went wrong, but habeas counsel (including the highly publicized participation of Ken Starr) were never able to get anywhere with it because of the destruction of the evidence.
Anyway, it's a pretty shitty situation and a bad day for the justice system if Robin gets executed tonight. If you get a chance, would you call the governor's office and ask for a commutation?
(804) 786-2211
Here's VADP's action page on this: http://www.vadp.org/action.htm
And there's an article in the Washington Post today.
Thanks,
T
Please forward this message to anyone else you think would care.
I called up Mark Warner's office, which was an interesting conversation. It was after normal business hours, but they had an operator there anyway. The conversation went something like this:
O: [cheerily] Thank you for calling the office of Virginia's Governor Mark Warner! How may I help you?
A: Uh... I, ah, would like to ask Governor Warner to, ah, commute Robin Lovitt's death sentence.
O: Okay, we can take those comments at this time! Thank you for calling!
A: Um... Okay. Bye.
There are a number of interesting things about that brief conversation, as I turn it over in my mind. One, I have obviously never called anyone to beg for someone else's life before. Two, I'm oddly embarrassed for doing something which I should feel righteously about, given my background and beliefs. Three, that feeling of eheu fugaces which I have felt a lot these last few days:
Eheu fugaces
Horace (65 B.C.-8 B.C.)
EHEV fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni nec pietas moram
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti;
non, si trecenis quotquot eunt dies, 5
amice, places inlacrimabilem
Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum
Geryonen Tityonque tristi
conpescit unda, scilicet omnibus
quicumque terrae munere uescimur 10
enauiganda, siue reges
siue inopes erimus coloni.
frustra cruento marte carebimus
fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,
frustra per autumnos nocentem 15
corporibus metuemus austrum:
uisendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans et Danai genus
infame damnatusque longi
Sisyphus Aeolides laboris: 20
linquenda tellus et domus et placens
uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum
te praeter inuisas cupressos
ulla breuem dominum sequetur.
absumet heres Caecuba dignior 25
seruata centum clauibus et mero
tinguet pauimentum superbus
pontificum potiore cenis.
Translation
on hearing the quiet dignity of Judge Joan Lefkow's testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee, on hearing the news from London, and now; eheu fugaces.
Checking my W&L e-mail today (an infrequent occurrence over the summer), I found a somewhat out of the ordinary e-mail. I'd seen the Post article, but, as usual, a friend of mine sums it up better than I can; does more than I can.
Hey All,
I just heard ("just" because I've had a hard time paying attention to life in Virginia this summer) that Robin Lovitt's execution is scheduled for 9:00 tonight. As many of you know, there are some serious questions about Lovitt's guilt, but everyone involved has hard a difficult time answering those questions because the court clerk destroyed all of the evidence in the court files after the supreme court of Virginia denied Robin's direct appeal. That evidence included DNA evidence that could have exonerated Robin. Other problems with the case include the fact that the Commonwealth relied on evidence that Robin stabbed the pool room cashier with scissors, but they only had the medical examiner check look at scissors that were similar to those they claimed to be the murder weapon, not the actual scissors. The examiner also stated later that the wounds were inconsistent with the type of scissors they claimed to be the murder weapon. Basically, for Robin to have killed the clerk the way they claimed, there would have had to have been more tissue compression around the wounds. The blades just weren't long enough to have produced the wound the victim recieved without further damage. Unfortunately, the defense team never got that evidence. Basically, there's a ton of stuff that went wrong, but habeas counsel (including the highly publicized participation of Ken Starr) were never able to get anywhere with it because of the destruction of the evidence.
Anyway, it's a pretty shitty situation and a bad day for the justice system if Robin gets executed tonight. If you get a chance, would you call the governor's office and ask for a commutation?
(804) 786-2211
Here's VADP's action page on this: http://www.vadp.org/action.htm
And there's an article in the Washington Post today.
Thanks,
T
Please forward this message to anyone else you think would care.
I called up Mark Warner's office, which was an interesting conversation. It was after normal business hours, but they had an operator there anyway. The conversation went something like this:
O: [cheerily] Thank you for calling the office of Virginia's Governor Mark Warner! How may I help you?
A: Uh... I, ah, would like to ask Governor Warner to, ah, commute Robin Lovitt's death sentence.
O: Okay, we can take those comments at this time! Thank you for calling!
A: Um... Okay. Bye.
There are a number of interesting things about that brief conversation, as I turn it over in my mind. One, I have obviously never called anyone to beg for someone else's life before. Two, I'm oddly embarrassed for doing something which I should feel righteously about, given my background and beliefs. Three, that feeling of eheu fugaces which I have felt a lot these last few days:
Eheu fugaces
Horace (65 B.C.-8 B.C.)
EHEV fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni nec pietas moram
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti;
non, si trecenis quotquot eunt dies, 5
amice, places inlacrimabilem
Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum
Geryonen Tityonque tristi
conpescit unda, scilicet omnibus
quicumque terrae munere uescimur 10
enauiganda, siue reges
siue inopes erimus coloni.
frustra cruento marte carebimus
fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,
frustra per autumnos nocentem 15
corporibus metuemus austrum:
uisendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans et Danai genus
infame damnatusque longi
Sisyphus Aeolides laboris: 20
linquenda tellus et domus et placens
uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum
te praeter inuisas cupressos
ulla breuem dominum sequetur.
absumet heres Caecuba dignior 25
seruata centum clauibus et mero
tinguet pauimentum superbus
pontificum potiore cenis.
Translation
on hearing the quiet dignity of Judge Joan Lefkow's testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee, on hearing the news from London, and now; eheu fugaces.