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RICHMOND — Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Monday commuted the sentence of a death row inmate with a history of mental issues to life in prison.
Percy Walton, 29, was sent to death row for robbing and killing three neighbors in Danville in 1996. He was set to die at 9 p.m. Tuesday at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.
Walton’s attorneys claim he suffers from schizophrenia and that he doesn’t understand that his execution would have meant the end of his life.
A federal court stepped in three days before Walton’s scheduled execution in 2003 to allow time to determine if Walton understood he was going to die and why. Kaine halted Walton’s execution twice in 2006 for further evaluation of his mental condition.
“Given the extended period of time over which Walton has exhibited this lack of mental competence, I must conclude that a commutation of his sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole is now the only constitutionally appropriate course of action,” Kaine said in a lengthy statement.
Kaine, a Roman Catholic, has personal, faith-based objections to the death penalty but has allowed five executions to proceed since he became governor in 2006, including one last month.
Walton was the first inmate Kaine has spared the death penalty.
Danville Commonwealth’s Attorney William H. Fuller III, who prosecuted Walton, said Kaine’s decision to stop the execution after the courts had declined to has made a decade of winning at all levels of court “an exercise in futility.”
“All the legal issues that Walton raised in the state and federal courts for the last 12 years have already been decided against him. The Supreme Court decision of June 8, 2006, removed all legal obstacles to Walton’s execution,” Fuller told the Danville Register & Bee on Monday. “If Governor Kaine had not intervened, Walton’s execution would have taken place at 9 p.m. that day, about an hour and a half after the Supreme Court’s decision.”
Attorney General Bob McDonnell said Walton had ample opportunity to present new evidence of his incompetence to the courts after the U.S. Supreme Court decided 6-3 that Walton was fit to be executed in 2006, but that he did not do so. Although McDonnell recognized Kaine’s authority to grant clemency, he said the courts were the better judge of an inmate’s mental condition.
“Thus I respectfully disagree with the Governor’s decision that clemency is now warranted in this case,” McDonnell said.
Nash Bilisoly, Walton’s attorney, was pleased with Kaine’s decision but said Walton wouldn’t know the difference.
“Percy Walton will not know that it is Monday, much less that his sentence has been commuted,” Bilisoly said.
Bilisoly said he did not know where Walton would end up, but that he hoped Walton would get treatment.
“I think it’s apparent that he ought to be somewhere where he can get some mental health treatment,” Bilisoly said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional to execute the insane or those with an IQ less than 70, established by the age of 18, who lack basic adaptive skills. A condemned person must be fully aware that the punishment would mean the end of physical life and understand why the sentence was received.
No competency hearing was held before Walton was sentenced to death, and various mental evaluations have yielded conflicting results.
Walton scored 90 and 77 on intelligence tests taken when he was 17 and 18, respectively. After he was sentenced to death, Walton’s scores declined.
Walton has said that after he is put to death he plans to go to Burger King and maybe ride a motorcycle. But he also has referred to execution as “the end” and said before his trial that the “chair is for killers.”
Kaine noted that Walton lives in a self-imposed state of isolation, communicates infrequently and has no personal items in his cell.
Walton pleaded guilty in 1997 to the murders of Jessie and Elizabeth Kendrick, a couple in their 80s, and 33-year-old Archie Moore, an aviation instructor at a nearby college.
The Kendricks’ bodies were found Nov. 26, 1996 in their townhouse, both shot in the head from close range. Jessie Kendrick’s hands were clenched together above his head as if either praying or begging for Walton to spare their lives.
Archie Moore’s body was found in a closet of his apartment two days later. He had been shot above the left eye, a plastic bag placed over his head and his body doused in cologne.
Kaine said he remained mindful of the victims’ families in reaching his decision.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the families of these honorable people,” he said.
Irene Jurscaga, 87, said she was disappointed her sister’s killer would not be put to death.
“It’s just another person that our tax dollars have to feed,” said Jurscaga, 87. “He isn’t deserving to be alive, someone who created such a heinous crime.
“He didn’t give my sister and brother-in-law a chance. They begged for their lives.”
Fuller agreed, saying, “It has been cruel and unfair for the families of the Kendricks and Archie Moore, who have waited 12 years for justice to prevail in the death of their loved ones, to be denied final justice.
Walton would have become the 100th person executed in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Only Texas, with 405, has executed more.
(Danville Register & Bee staff writer Bernard Baker contributed to this story).
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Reader Reactions
JP. I have to take exception with your comment regarding hidden bigotry. Mr. Walton,(Mr. Percy to you), being black has nothing to do with the fact that this man took 3 innocent lives. Murder is murder, I really don’t care what color is involved. If Walton was white, I can assure you I would feel just as strongly about the Governor’s actions. I felt just as strongly on the death penalty towards Ricky Price when he killed all of those women back in the mid 80s. He was white, as were his victims. No sir, the only bigots and racists I see are those who make comments such as yours. The life of a black man or woman is no less than that of a white man or woman, and for you sir to make such a comment, Doctor, only goes to show who the bigot is here and your own racism sticks out like an untucked shirt tail! You, sir, are a part of the problem, not the solution.
SmokeScreen. I will gladly accept anyone’s informed view that is different from mine. I just find that many of the rantings and ravings on this page are uninformed revengeful discourses of hidden bigotry (Mr. Percy is a Black man). And, yes SmokeScreen, I am a doctor.
letstalk. I appreciate your comments on mental illness and am sorry that you have a child with many problems, but there are so many forms of mental illness that cannot be judged by a lay person, even if that person has experienced or been close to mental illness in one form or another. It’s like saying that just because a person has read a book, that person is a literary expert. It doesn’t work that way, as I’m sure you know.
And you are being hyperbolic in your statement that “The system lets any one say they are mentally ill just to get away with stuff.“ You must know that is not true; if you don’t, my friend, get better informed.
Shalom.
JP I have you know I know a lot about mental illness. I support those who have it. The General Assembly this year tackled it, but more needs to be done. They don’t know half of what parents, caregivers and even the providers go thru. Walton was not mentally ill. Cho was a different case as it was brought out. I live with this every day because I have a son who was born with many problems. If you want to debate the issue. I am ready. The system lets any one say they are mentally ill just to get away with stuff. But the real people who ARE mentally ill or phsically handicapped have to prove it. That is a system that is lacking.
Who are you to discuss Mental disorders? Are you a Doctor?I see now that you just want to rant and rave.Good luck to anyone that has a view different from yours.At least Percy has a friend in you.
Oh. So now the police officers suffer too because the state didn’t take the life of a man. The police officers do their job. What happens in the court shouldn’t impact them whatsoever. What a lame reason to put a person to death because you, letstalk, are concerned what the police officers are thinking.
People who have mental disorders can be very methodical, and driving around in the victim’s car for 3 days does not prove mental competence. You, my friend, are looking for any reason to kill this man for revenge, not justice.
Bill Fuller’s job is to say what he said just like the attorneys of O.J. had a job to get him free. Sometimes justice isn’t fair, but in the case of Mr. Walton, justice is being served since he will be put away from society for the rest of his life.
JP,I wouldnt be calling someone a sissy after reading your article.But since you love to put us sirens down,read this.You have the freedom to write your views because you live in a free country.No one called you names,or said you werent a follower of Gods word.I lived in Danville when this crime was committed,so im very well informed.I feel very bad for Mr.Fuller, and the Police Officers who worked so hard on this case.No,you are right,the Death Penalty does not stop crime,But it sure does save the taxpayers one hell of a lot of money on a criminal who laughs at the law and plays like hes mental.Its over now,we can all call each other stupid,or leave it in Gods hands.Perhaps it will be handled in prison as one person wrote.I never said someone should leave this country,just that I have lived overseas,being here at home with Freedom and rights cannot be appreciated unless you see how people without freedom have to live.Thats all!!
My biggest problem with Mr. Kaine is his circumvention of our legal system. It was determined that Walton was not incompetent by the courts, on up to the US Supreme Court, the highest court in our land. For the Governor to thumb his nose at our legal system using his own investigation is just plain wrong. I don’t like the taking of a life, but I don’t condone the taking of 3 lives either. Our legal system is supposed to speak for the victims, not the Governor, not you and not me!
As far as being barbarious, I’m no worse than you hiding behind religion to coddle a predator on society. This country has laws for all who live here to abide by. We, the citizens, are not free to pick and choose as we please. Your ideas, JacksonPollock, are a large part of the problem in this country, not part of the solution. But you are the product of your indoctination, I am simply a product of my education. As a citizen of this country, I know what is expected of me, the difference between right and wrong. I also know that a cold-blooded killer gives up his right to life when he has committed a heinous multiple murder. When one of these predators kills one of your loved ones, then YOU have the right to plead for his life. But until that time, our laws are clear and the prosecutors speak for the victims and our judicial system rules on behalf of the facts presented before them. Life is precious to all, not just to common murderers.
Like Bill Fuller Said, Walton knew what he was doing, He drove around for 3 days in the victims car. What mentally ill person would do that.
Think if this, What do you think the police officers that investigated this case are thinking? All the time and energy they put into the case. He was found guilty, sentence and they too have been waiting for justice to be served. The families of the victims as well. Walton was only thinking of himself.
There sure are a lot of shrill, uninformed voices on this page all in a soprano-like voice, much like the Sirens of mythology singing ships to the reefs and to destruction, suggesting that if someone doesn’t like it here, move. What a sissy thing for someone wanting blood to say. Vindicator is the shrillest, the least informed, and the loudest of the Sirens, and also, with all due respect, the most barbarous of the Sirens (wanting prime time reality TV to include executions -let’s make it Saturday mornings for the children to watch while they eat their Coco Puffs). FOOLISHNESS!!!
The death penalty doesn’t work to deter crime (research has proven that over and over again), and those who have the best lawyers can work around it; those who have mental problems may get off, but often they, too, don’t escape the executioner’s hand in this land that some like to call “a Christian nation.“
Real Christians follow Christ’s words (not once did he say to kill anyone) and not the Old Testament of “an eye for an eye.“ Following Christ’s message of peace is NOT what the Sirens of this page like to refer to as “bleeding heart liberals”: this is just being Christian.
You Sirens here should be ashamed of yourselves, if you call yourselves Christians, because calling for the death of another human being is NOT compassion for the victims but revenge. Jesus speaks against revenge in Matt. 5: “I say unto you, . . . whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.“ How can one justify capital punishment in a “Christian nation” when Jesus says otherwise? If you follow the Old Testament law, then follow it completely. Don’t eat pork or shellfish; stone your neighbor who commits adultery; kill your neighbor if he mows his lawn on the sabbath, etc. Check out the Pentateuch (the laws of Moses) and abide by them all; don’t just pick and choose.
And “The Truth”. As a piece of advice, I would suggest that you not threaten the life of the governor even as an annonymous poster on a page like this. If you hear a knock on your door tonight (late at night), it might be the State Police coming to take you away. Threatening the governor is a crime in this state. You won’t be sent to gitmo, but you may end up with a criminal record. Heck, as a good citizen, I may report this threat myself to the authorities. Maybe they’ll let you share a cell with Percy Walton, and you can judge for yourself whether he is crazy or not.
Some of the posters on this page are like our wimpish President; they want blood and quote the Bible yet can’t even spell perfume (or pronounce “nuclear”).
SpencerO is the only poster on this page who makes sense; the others are just shrill sounding Sirens. Peace.
JB, you and most of the rest of the posters here are engregiously ignorant. If you want ot quote the Bible, maybe you should be reading the new testatment. Remember “turn the other cheek?“ And when was the last time you ate pork? By the way, I did lose someone to murder. So stop it.
The Truth should be careful .. it sounds like he is making a threat towards the Governor.
Finally, my original point was that the death penalty is not applied equally. We had a very recent example of this here in this great state. A few weeks ago, a man was tried and convicted of murder in Danville because he killed someone over a $20 loan. No death penalty was ever considered. Then there was the fellow who was convicted of murder because he beat up his co-worker with a lamp . . again, over a small amount of money. However, the latter received the death penalty. What is the difference? Better attorney representation?
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