Va. Man Nears Execution in Test of Destroyed DNA

Lovitt was one of the review's first priorities, and preliminary results indicate no apparent problems in his case file. It was not an evidentiary review but rather a paperwork review of procedures.

But Lovitt's advocates do not believe the quick review was enough. On June 22, a coalition of religious, civil-liberties and civil-rights groups in Virginia called on Warner to stay Lovitt's execution and commute his sentence to life in prison. The group argued that Lovitt faces a Catch-22, with no chance for post-conviction testing because there is no evidence.

"We cannot send a man to his death with so many unanswered questions," the group wrote in a letter to the governor.

A spokesman at Warner's office said that Lovitt's bid for clemency is under consideration and that it will be decided today if the Supreme Court declines the case. Warner, a Democrat in a Republican-dominated state with a long history of capital punishment, has been governor through 11 executions, since 2002. He has never granted clemency.

In Northeast Washington and its surrounding suburbs, the family of Clayton Dicks is not worried about DNA testing or destroyed evidence. They said they share a different concern altogether: What if the execution is stopped?

Mary Dicks, 84, said that seven of her children -- nearly all of Clayton Dicks's surviving brothers and sisters -- plan to witness Lovitt's execution. It is a tightly scripted event that victims' families can view from a private room.

"They want to make sure," Dicks said. "Since he killed Clayton, they want to see him go. The whole family thinks he deserves it. They were crazy about Clayton."

Clayton Dicks was killed Nov. 18, 1998. A night manager at Champion Billiards Sports Cafe, Dicks worked hard on the job, his mother said, and came home to two boys -- whom he raised on his own, as his own sons, in Northeast after they were left with him by a onetime girlfriend. When he was killed, the boys were seniors in high school and college.

Dicks had wedding plans, good health, a future, his mother said. He visited her on Sundays and helped other relatives with such chores as mowing grass.

Mary Dicks has decided to forgo the execution, having been through too many other deaths in recent years. "It's not going to bring Clayton back," she said. "I don't want to see anyone killed, but if you kill someone, then you're supposed to deserve the same thing the other man gets."

As for Starr's involvement in the case, Dicks said: "If someone in his family got killed, he wouldn't try to clear the man who killed his son."

Death row was a two-hour drive. Tonglya Carter looked upon her older brother through the glass of a visitors' room. She and Lovitt had exchanged letters, but it had been years since she had seen him. Only a matter of days were left until his execution date.