Tuesday, May 20, 2008

RICHMOND (AP) — Attorneys for a man scheduled to be executed next week for killing a Brunswick County convenience store owner during a 1998 robbery asked the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday to review the case.

Attorneys for Kevin Green, 31, say the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals erred when it ruled in February that the statute of limitations had passed for their client claiming ineffective counsel. The ruling cleared the way for Green to be executed May 27 at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Green’s request for a stay yesterday. His attorneys also have petitioned Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, for clemency, Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said.

If neither intervene, Green will become the first person executed in Virginia since Mr. Kaine lifted a moratorium on executions in April after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections.

Also yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for officials to set an execution date for Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmett, who is challenging the state’s lethal injection method in a federal appeals court.

Emmett, 36, is sentenced to die for the 2001 bludgeoning death of a co-worker in Danville.

Green received the death penalty for the slaying of Patricia Vaughan, who operated the store with her husband, Lawrence. Green shot the couple and fled with about $9,000. Mr. Vaughan was shot twice but survived.

Mr. Kaine put all Virginia executions on hold April 1 when he stayed the execution of Edward Nathaniel Bell, who killed a Winchester police officer nine years ago. The governor cited the Kentucky lethal-injection challenge Baze v. Rees as the reason for blocking the executions.

Mr. Kaine lifted the moratorium April 16 after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections. Georgia became the first to execute an inmate, on May 7.

Green declined to choose his method of execution — lethal injection or electrocution — so it defaulted to lethal injection, Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.

Though the court upheld Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure, Emmett claims Virginia’s method is unconstitutional because it does not ensure sufficient anesthesia before the paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs are administered.

Associated Press reporter Larry O’Dell contributed to this report.

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