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| Court Affirms Ruling on Death Row Inmate |
| By The Virginia Times Dispatch |
| Published: 03/13/2006 |
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The federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia narrowly sided with a lower-court judge who rejected condemned Virginia inmate Percy L. Walton's claims of mental incompetence. Judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 7-6 to affirm decisions by Judge Samuel G. Wilson, of the federal district court for Western Virginia, that Walton is neither legally insane nor mentally retarded. A finding that he has either condition would prohibit his execution under U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The full court heard arguments Oct. 27. Walton murdered three people, an elderly couple and a younger man, in Danville in separate robberies in November 1996 when he was 18. Physical evidence was overwhelming. Walton pleaded guilty to the murders and all related charges. He was sentenced to death in Danville Circuit Court. The difference of opinion between the seven majority judges and the six dissenters is "really a pretty narrow difference," said Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond. He said it comes down to "what kind of understanding the person who's going to be executed has to have." The majority opinion, written by Judge Dennis W. Shedd, says the lower-court judge applied the correct legal test of what Wilson understands. Under that test, established in an opinion written by the late Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. of Richmond, the condemned inmate must understand that he will be punished by execution and why he will be punished. The dissenting opinion, written by Chief Judge William W. Wilkins, says the case should be sent back to the lower court for a specific determination that Walton also understands that his execution means his physical death. In some statements to psychiatrists who have examined him, Walton has said he expects to be around after his execution. Wilkins wrote that "given the substantial conflict in the evidence regarding whether Walton understands that his execution will mean his death, I believe it was incumbent upon the district court to make specific finding on this question." |
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