Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 2, 1990 TAG: 9004020371
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOYDTON LENGTH: Long
As he nears execution for two murders he says he did not commit, Giarratano says that's exactly how he feels.
But the former scallop boat crewman has not been alone lately in his effort to overturn his capital murder conviction for the 1979 slayings of a Norfolk woman and her 15-year-old daughter.
He receives piles of mail from around the world, conducts at least one or two news interviews a week and counts among his supporters such conservatives as columnist James J. Kilpatrick.
"That makes me feel hopeful but at the same time, I've got a filing deadline of April 24. Things are moving forward. Nothing has seemed to stop here," Giarratano said in an interview at the Mecklenburg Correctional Center, where the state's 43 death row inmates are housed.
Unless he gets a 30-day extension, Giarratano has until April 24 to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case. Giarratano, who has become a jailhouse lawyer in his 11 years on death row, said he doubts the justices will overturn his conviction because they recently took steps designed to expedite executions.
Giarratano's last hope would rest with Gov. Douglas Wilder, a former death penalty opponent who recently pushed the state legislature to add murders that occur during drug deals to Virginia's capital crimes.
Wilder could let the execution proceed, commute the sentence to life in prison or order another trial based on new evidence that Giarratano's lawyers say they have gathered.
"You can't be a politician without believing in the death penalty," Giarratano said. "I'd like to think that Wilder is a fair man."
Attorney General Mary Sue Terry has objected to Giarratano's call for another trial, saying state law requires that he raise any new evidence in his initial appeals.
"It's been our position in court that this new evidence is really old evidence in a new wrapper," said Burt Rohrer, a spokesman for Terry.
Terry is unfazed by the campaign to win a new trial for Giarratano, Rohrer said.
"Our decisions and what we do are a matter of law and are not influenced by publicity campaigns."
Lawrence C. Lawless, who prosecuted Giarratano, said he has no doubts about the defendant's guilt.
"He received a fair trial and the correct person was convicted," Lawless said.
Giarratano, 32, was sentenced to death for the rape and strangulation of Michelle Kline, 15, in February 1979. He was convicted of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of the girl's mother, Barbara "Toni" Kline.
Giarratano said he confessed to the crimes because he was mentally ill and under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Giarratano has said he doesn't remember whether he committed the murders, but in a recent interview he was more adamant when asked if he could have killed the Klines.
"No," he said. "If I killed Toni and Michelle, the evidence would be there."
Giarratano, who grew up in Jacksonville, Fla., lived with the Klines in their apartment in January 1979. He moved out of the Klines' home a few days before the murders but remembers no disagreement with them. All he remembers is waking up there and finding their bodies.
"I wake up in this apartment. There's blood all over the place and I'm the only one there. I had no memory. I kept asking myself, `Could I have done this?"' he said.
He fled on a bus to Jacksonville, where he told a police officer at the bus station that he had killed two people in Norfolk. Giarranto subsequently made five conflicting confessions to police, changing the order in which he said he killed the Klines and the reason for the crime. The state has argued that Giarratano's confessions are consistent on the method and fact of the killings.
With more than $100,000 supplied by a West German woman, defense lawyers have turned up evidence that they say shows Giarratano could be innocent.
Their arguments include:
Stab wounds on Barbara Kline were consistent with a right-handed person stabbing from behind. Giarratano is left-handed and has a weakness in his right hand. The state says the nerve damage in his wrist occurred in a 1983 suicide attempt but Giarratano says his hand was weak before that.
His boots had two drops of type O blood on them, the same type as the strangulation victim. An autopsy showed she bled from the vagina, but Giarratano says it was not enough to stain his boots. Neither Giarratano's nor Barbara Kline's blood has been typed.
Another suspect, a man who knew the Klines and has a history of sexual assaults on young women, has been mentioned by the defense but further information is under court seal.
Kilpatrick, an outspoken supporter of the death penalty, said in a January column that Giarratano deserves a new trial.
"I am a neutral observer, not known to be soft on crime, and I am filled with reasonable doubt," Kilpatrick wrote.
Giarratano, a burly, bearded man who speaks knowledgeably about the law and current events, said he is feeling "hyper, angry" as he watches his appeals run out.
"I get depressed. I have my down days," he said. "Being able to work on my case helps."
by CNB