A clemen­cy peti­tion filed with Virginia Governor Mark Warner on behalf of Robin Lovitt, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on November 30, has gained the back­ing of some of the state’s most con­ser­v­a­tive voic­es. Among those encour­ag­ing Warner to com­mute Lovitt’s sen­tence to life are for­mer Republican Virginia attor­ney gen­er­al Mark L. Earley, Rutherford Institute founder John W. Whitehead, and Lovitt’s attor­ney Kenneth Starr, who now serves as dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law.

In May 2001, three weeks after Virginia leg­is­la­tors passed a bill order­ing that all bio­log­i­cal evi­dence in death penal­ty cas­es be sent to the state foren­sics lab for safe­keep­ing in case future DNA or oth­er test­ing was need­ed, the Arlington County Court ordered destruc­tion of evi­dence in Lovitt’s case. The clerk respon­si­ble for destroy­ing the evi­dence claimed igno­rance of wrong­do­ing. Original DNA test­ing in Lovitt’s case was incon­clu­sive. In his appeal for clemen­cy for Lovitt, Starr not­ed that DNA test­ing has great­ly improved since the orig­i­nal tests were con­duct­ed and that ​“through no fault of his own,” Lovitt can­not take advan­tage of new DNA technologies.

“I think it’s moral­ly unfair to this guy when the evi­dence was by all accounts clear­ly destroyed con­trary to [state law], and it has clear­ly prej­u­diced him,” said Earley, who sup­ports cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and is pres­i­dent of the Virginia-based Prison Fellowship Ministries. “[The destruc­tion of evi­dence] just presents a high­ly prej­u­di­cial cloud over the case. [I]f you impose the death penal­ty in this case, quite frankly, you under­mine the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the death penal­ty.”

Whitehead added, ​“The gov­er­nor’s author­i­ty to com­mute death sen­tences is reserved specif­i­cal­ly for sit­u­a­tions like this one.”

Lovitt is sched­uled to be the nation’s 1000th exe­cu­tion since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1976. Virginia gov­er­nors have only grant­ed clemen­cy in six death row cas­es, includ­ing four cas­es that involved ques­tions of pos­si­ble inno­cence. Warner has denied each of the 11 clemen­cy peti­tions that have come before him since he took office in 2002. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 22, 2005). See Clemency, Innocence, and New Voices.

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