Posted: 3/19/2010 7:11:29 AM EDT
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Powell executed for teen’s 1999 murder in Manassas
VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS The victim’s mother said at a news conference before the execution that Paul Warner Powell said he was sorry for the killing. • The Execution of Paul Powell (from InsideNova.com) By Frank Green Published: March 19, 2010 Updated: March 19, 2010 JARRATT –– Paul Warner Powell died in the electric chair last night for the 1999 capital murder of a 16-yearold girl in her Manassas-area home. Powell, 31, was sentenced to death for the Jan. 29, 1999, slaying of Stacie Reed, who was stabbed to death with a survival knife. After killing her, Powell then waited for her 14-year-old sister to return home from school, raped her, cut her throat, and left her for dead. Kristie Reed lived and testified against him. Given a chance to make a last statement, Powell declined. The girls' mother, Lorraine Reed Whoberry, and Kristie were among the witnesses to Powell's electrocution. He was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m., Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, said outside the Greensville Correctional Center where executions are carried out. A half-dozen members of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty held a candlelight vigil in a field near the prison. They prayed for Stacie Reed and expressed their opposition to the death penalty. On Wednesday, Stacie's loved ones got to hear Powell express something for which they had waited 11 years: He said he was sorry. Whoberry, who now lives in Cincinnati and was in the Richmond area on her way to witness the execution, revealed yesterday that she had a conference call with Powell the previous day. "He was able to say he was sorry, and he made the point several times that [the crime] was senseless, it was pointless. . . . He couldn't really give us a reason why," she said. "I think it was heartfelt. It wasn't a big to-do thing. It was just a simplistic, 'I'm sorry,' and I accept that," Whoberry said. Powell's lawyer Jonathan P. Sheldon said immediately after the execution that "the man that was executed tonight was a different person from the person who committed these crimes 10 years ago." Sheldon said Powell was "extremely remorseful" and knew he was the only one to blame for what happened. Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert, a witness to the execution, said: "It's a relief he won't be able to taunt any victims anymore." Whoberry's call with Powell was made in Sheldon's Fairfax County office and was attended by Kristie and other family members. Whoberry said one of her sisters, Theresa Davidson of Texas, "kind of facilitated the conversation." The call lasted, with some interruptions, for an hour to an hour and a half. "As the conversation went on, he was able to open up a little bit more. He wasn't belligerent, he didn't raise his voice. It was very civil," she said. "The questions that we asked, he answered to the best of his ability." "I did ask him at some point if he had forgiven himself, and he got emotional and he said, 'No.' "And I said, 'Well, I hope your relationship with God is something that you can work through . . . before tomorrow night,' and we let him know that we are praying for him and his mom, his family," Whoberry said. Sheldon said last night that he and Whoberry hoped to work together to get legislation passed that would enable loved ones to visit with inmates on death row. He said that the conference call was "so productive for both sides. . . . It allowed him to take responsibility and to show remorse." However, he said, it being over the telephone took something away from it. Whoberry said she has forgiven Powell, for her own sake, and that she had hoped to meet with him. Authorities denied permission for a meeting with Powell, who was abusive toward the family and law-enforcement officials in letters after his arrest. Powell's first capital murder conviction was thrown out on appeal. The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that even with Kristie's rape, Powell had to have raped or attempted to rape Stacie to be convicted of capital murder. Believing he no longer could face a death sentence, he wrote Ebert an abusive letter in which he admitted he attempted to rape Stacie and boasted about the crimes in horrific detail. The letter provided grounds for Powell to be tried again for capital murder and sentenced to death. All of his appeals were rejected, and Gov. Bob McDonnell turned down his clemency request last week. Powell boasted about the crimes in his letter to Ebert. "It was heart-wrenching to read that letter. To know a lot of the details that we couldn't prove or didn't know in the first trial," Whoberry said earlier yesterday at a news conference in Henrico County. "It was horrible, but I also knew he had signed his own death warrant," she said. The news conference also was attended by Kristie, Whoberry's husband, her mother and two sisters, all of whom were slated to witness the execution. "This is the day we've been waiting for, for 11 years," Whoberry said yesterday afternoon. "There really aren't any words to express how I feel right now. . . . I know that for myself, it's been a long road." "Hopefully, when this is done and it is final, we can look back and find the positive things that came out of this that we strived so hard to make happen. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family." "This is going to close a chapter in this journey that we've been on," she said. "I can't imagine what he is feeling," she said around 4 p.m. "But, again, it was his decision to do what he did, not mine. I know that justice will be served according to whatever God has in mind for him." Powell chose to die in the electric chair instead of by injection. Virginia death row inmates were given the choice starting in 1995. If an inmate refuses to choose, injection becomes the default method. Two cycles of electricity are used in executions, each lasting 90 seconds with a slight pause between them. Since the choice was made available, 76 inmates have died by injections and now six by electrocution. Powell's execution was the 106th in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. His death leaves 12 men and one woman sentenced to death in the state. Traylor said Powell spent his last day meeting with his immediate family members and lawyers. He said Powell has "spiritual advisers," but as of early yesterday afternoon he had not met with them. Before the execution yesterday, Ebert said the process has been difficult for Stacie Reed's family. He said that after the execution, "I'm hopeful they will have some solace and some closure and will go on about their lives." Link |
