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| Judge Grants Stay For Va. Death Row Inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/04/2003 |
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A man who has been on death row for six years for the rape and murder of a young mother was granted a stay of execution Wednesday by a federal court. U.S. District Court Judge Samuel G. Wilson approved Brandon Wayne Hedrick's request for a stay a day before Hedrick was to be executed. The state Attorney General's office did not object to the motion. Hedrick now has 90 days to file a petition for a habeas corpus review in federal court. He has exhausted his state appeals. Hedrick's attorney, Robert Lee, said his client could appeal on grounds he received inadequate representation at trial. He said Hedrick's trial attorneys did not spend enough time preparing for his case, believing Hedrick would accept a plea agreement. He declined to say Wednesday when an appeal would be filed. Hedrick was sentenced to death in 1998 after being convicted of abducting, raping and shooting 23-year-old Lisa Alexander Crider in the head with a shotgun. Crider's body was found in the James River in Appomattox County a year earlier, her head wrapped with duct tape. A co-defendant, Trevor Jones, was sentenced to life in prison. Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, said that while Hedrick has the constitutional right to pursue his federal appeal, the 'facts of the case remain consistent.' 'Brandon Hedrick was convicted by a jury of the robbery, rape, abduction and murder of Lisa Crider,' he said. In March 2001, the Virginia Supreme Court ordered a habeas corpus review of Hedrick's case in Appomattox County, the first time the court had ordered such a hearing in a death row appeal in six years. However, Appomattox Circuit Court Judge Richard S. Blanton ruled in October 2001 that Hedrick had received adequate legal representation and did not deserve a new trial. Hedrick last year told the courts he no longer wanted to appeal his conviction. In a telephone interview from the Greensville Correctional Center Tuesday, though, he said he was a changed man and he believed he could be a source of inspiration for other prisoners. 'I might be able to help young people coming in to change their mentality so when they do get released they can be productive in their lives,' he said. 'If I can do that, it's worth all the suffering.' He added: 'I know what I was involved in was totally wrong and I should have had no involvement in doing any of it. I do believe that I need to be punished but I don't know what my punishment should be.' 'I've judged myself harder than most people would.' |
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