Mr. Kaine and the Death Penalty
At the eleventh hour, a killer gets a reprieve.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

VIRGINIA GOV. Timothy M. Kaine (D), a devout Catholic and principled opponent of the death penalty, threaded the needle on that issue in his race for office last year. In a broadly pro-capital-punishment state, he said forthrightly that he had long-standing moral and religious objections to state executions. Yet he also pledged to carry out the death sentence as a function of his office and in pursuance of state law. To do otherwise, he said, would be to disregard his official oath -- except in instances when a convict's guilt was in question.

Now, with a condemned man's life on the line, Mr. Kaine has stepped in; with scarcely an hour to spare last week, he postponed for six months an execution pending an inquiry into the inmate's mental state. Predictably, Mr. Kaine's pro-death-penalty opponents howled that he had broken a campaign promise. It's a good bet they haven't read the case record in question; Mr. Kaine clearly has.

The record on convicted killer Percy Levar Walton leaves no doubt about his guilt; in 1996, a month past his 18th birthday, he murdered three people, including an elderly couple, in the Southside city of Danville. The record of his competency to face the death sentence is another matter.

Mr. Walton's case is complex. An array of psychiatrists have reached differing conclusions about his mental capacity and ability to grasp that he may be put to death. That's important, as the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that a condemned man is fit for execution only if he understands that he's been sentenced to death and the reason.

There is evidence that Mr. Walton's mental ability and health are declining. A decade ago he scored 90 on an IQ test -- below average but not severely so. But in recent years he has twice scored under 70, the level below which people are considered mentally retarded. More to the point, he has sometimes seemed cloudy on what the death penalty means, telling one psychiatrist that after his execution he expected to have access to a telephone, a motorcycle and a job at Burger King. Ruling on Mr. Walton's case in March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, perhaps the nation's most conservative federal court, split 7 to 6 in deciding that he is mentally fit to be executed.

Mr. Kaine has already shown that he takes his campaign promises seriously; in April he denied clemency and allowed a condemned man to be executed. But he is empowered by Virginia's constitution to review scheduled executions one by one, and he is duty-bound to take that responsibility seriously. Virginia governors have granted clemency in seven cases since the Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in 1976. Mr. Kaine is right, and courageous, to order a full review before passing a final judgment on Mr. Walton.