Virginia Governor Mark Warner (pic­tured) com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Robin Lovitt to life in prison with­out parole, a deci­sion he made to ​“ensure that every time the ulti­mate sanc­tion is car­ried out, it is done fair­ly.” Warner not­ed his deci­sion was based on con­cerns that Lovitt could not pur­sue new DNA test­ing on cru­cial evi­dence that could prove his inno­cence. The evi­dence, a pair of scis­sors that pros­e­cu­tors say Lovitt used as the mur­der weapon, had been thrown out by a Virginia court clerk. During Lovitt’s tri­al, DNA tests on the scis­sors were incon­clu­sive, and Lovitt’s fin­ger­prints were not found on the scis­sors. His attor­neys argued that los­ing the weapon had result­ed in ​“pro­found unfair­ness” because Lovitt could not request more mod­ern DNA tests on the evi­dence.

​“I believe clemen­cy should only be exer­cised in the most extra­or­di­nary cir­cum­stances. Among these are cir­cum­stances in which the nor­mal and hon­ored process­es of our judi­cial sys­tem do not pro­vide ade­quate relief — cir­cum­stances that, in fact, require exec­u­tive inter­ven­tion to reaf­firm pub­lic con­fi­dence in our judi­cial sys­tem,” Warner said as he announced his deci­sion to com­mute Lovitt’s sen­tence.

Lovitt was sched­uled to be the 1,000th per­son exe­cut­ed since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed, and he is the first per­son to have his death sen­tence com­mut­ed by Warner. (New York Times, November 30, 2005). See Clemency and Life Without Parole.

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