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| Capital Murder Charge Dropped Against Va. Inmate |
| By Roanoke Times |
| Published: 08/06/2003 |
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'I do not believe there is a reasonable chance that the jury will sentence him to death,' Wise County Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Gilliam said. A capital - murder charge against Joseph Armstrong, accusing him of strangling Kenneth Boothe in the cell they shared in May 2002, was dropped Monday at the prosecution's request. In an unusual move, Gilliam said there was sufficient evidence to convict, yet based his decision on the sentencing issue. Armstrong is already serving a life sentence with no parole for murder, he said, and a trial would only cost taxpayers several hundred thousand dollars. 'He already has life, and another life sentence wouldn't do anything,' Gilliam said. Boothe was known to have engaged in homosexual acts, and Armstrong had made threats against homosexuals - prompting some to question why the Department of Corrections placed the men in the same cell at the super-maximum security prison. 'There's no question that our client did not want to be housed with a homosexual,' said Charles Bledsoe, a Big Stone Gap attorney who represents Armstrong. However, Armstrong has denied any involvement in Booth's death, saying he was asleep when his cellmate hanged himself with a T-shirt the night of May 19, 2002. Boothe had a history of trying to kill himself, and a forensic pathologist was prepared to testify for the defense that his death was consistent with suicide. Although Boothe suffered a cut to his neck that authorities believed was caused by Armstrong's watch during a chokehold, forensic tests found no blood on the watch or other genetic evidence suitable for DNA testing. And while Armstrong's hostility toward homosexuals was first thought to be a motive for the killing, Gilliam said authorities have since learned that he had sought counseling and was trying to control his anger in the months before the killing. 'I believe the people who were responsible for making the decision to place these two inmates together at Red Onion did not have anything that was flagged that would have informed them there would have been a problem,' Gilliam said. The prosecutor said that, in his experience, Wise County juries impose death verdicts only when three factors are present: there is proof of guilt beyond all possible doubt; the defendant has a very bad record; and the victim is a child or a person of good character. Armstrong, 25, is serving life plus 40 years for the murder and attempted robbery of a pedestrian in Norfolk. But a closer look at his record reveals that he was an accomplice to murder in that incident - driving the getaway car during a spree of robberies - and that he has no other prior convictions that might show he is a future threat to society, Gilliam said. Boothe, on the other hand, had a record that included sexual attacks on a 3-year-old girl and a fellow inmate at the Smyth County Jail. The 29-year-old had a long history of mental illness, Gilliam said, and was not receiving the weekly mental - health intervention he needed at the time of his death. Attempts to reach Boothe's family members were unsuccessful. Supermax critics have said that the highly secure prisons, with little emphasis on treatment or rehabilitation, are especially harsh on the mentally ill. 'That kid had no reason to be in that prison, due to his mental state,' said Dolores Boehm, a retired prisons teacher who once taught Boothe. 'I call him a kid, because he looked like he was 14 years old.' |
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