Va. Death Row Inmate Found Dead

RICHMOND, Va. -- Death row inmate Jeffrey A. Remington was found dead in his cell, an apparent suicide, the Department of Corrections said Tuesday.

Spokesman Larry Traylor said Remington, 39, was found early Monday by corrections officers.

Traylor said the condemned killer, who had no execution date, apparently killed himself. "We do not suspect foul play," he said. An investigation was under way to determine how Remington died.

Traylor said he did not know if Remington was dead when officers found him. Remington was alone in the cell at the Sussex I State Prison near Waverly.

Remington and another inmate, Michael Lenz, were convicted of capital murder in 2000 for stabbing fellow inmate Brent Henry Parker 68 times at the Augusta Correctional Center.

Lenz, who also is on death row, testified that the slaying was religiously motivated. He said his religion worships Nordic gods, and he was "protecting the honor" of those gods by killing Parker.

Remington originally was convicted in Richmond in 1993 of abduction and sexual assault.

The last inmate to die on death row was David "D.J." Overton Jr., 21, who was found dead in his cell on March 1, 2001. An investigation determined he killed himself with an overdose of two prescription anti-depressant drugs.

In 1993, death row inmate Wayne K. Delong hanged himself in his cell after injecting cocaine and drinking prison hooch. Joseph LeVasseur, another death row prisoner, hanged himself in 1987.

Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia, said an inmate suicide should be almost impossible on death row.

"Death row is a very small portion of the prison population that, because of its obvious susceptibility to suicide, should be constantly evaluated and monitored," Willis said.

He said the federal courts have said the Department of Corrections can only be held responsible if it acted with deliberate indifference in allowing a suicide to occur.

Remington's death leaves 26 men on death row at Sussex and one woman on death row at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women.

Virginia has executed 89 people since capital punishment was reinstated in 1982, second to Texas.