Kaine Stays Execution Pending High Court Appeal

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last night delayed until October the execution of convicted murderer Christopher Scott Emmett, 35, who killed a co-worker with a brass lamp in a Danville motel after he refused to lend him $100 to buy crack cocaine.

Kaine (D) said in a statement issued two hours before Emmett's scheduled lethal injection that he was delaying the execution pending an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, which will not consider whether to review the case until late September. The execution -- scheduled to be the first in Virginia this year -- was delayed until Oct. 17.

Emmett's attorneys had appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay of execution. The Supreme Court denied his stay earlier yesterday, with four justices voting to grant it. They have not yet considered the merits of his case.

"Basic fairness demands that condemned inmates be allowed the opportunity to complete legal appeals prior to execution," the governor's statement said. "The irreversibility of an execution and the fact that four justices of the court believe a stay is needed to consider the appeal warrant my intervention in this case."

Matthew Engle, one of Emmett's attorneys, called the delay appropriate because the Supreme Court said it would not rule on the appeal before the planned execution.

Six death-row inmates including Emmett have petitioned Kaine, a Catholic who has said he personally opposes the death penalty, for clemency since he became governor. He granted conditional clemency in one case.

Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) said he respected Kaine's decision to delay the execution because the appeal has not been considered.

Emmett confessed to repeatedly hitting co-worker John F. Langley, 43, on the head with the lamp in a motel room the two were sharing April 27, 2001, while they did a roofing job. In his statement, Emmett said he had not intended to kill his co-worker but rather render him unconscious so he could rob him to get some money to buy crack. Emmett was sentenced to death by a jury in October 2001.

Emmett's appeal to the Supreme Court centered on complaints that his former attorney did not provide him with adequate counsel. Emmett says the attorney did not give the jury vital information about his abuse-filled, poverty-stricken childhood.

The clemency petition to Kaine included affidavits from two jurors who were not shown a summary of Emmett's life history during the trial.

"It was a waste of our tax dollars and a waste of my time to have listened to such a one-sided case," wrote one juror, who was not identified. "Mr. Emmett's lawyer should have done so much more for him."

"If I had been presented with the evidence, I would not have voted for the death penalty," the juror wrote.

Engle said only one juror needed to have opposed the death penalty for his client to have been given life without parole.