Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990 TAG: 9005230355
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium
Joseph J. Savino, convicted of killing his homosexual lover, has written a letter to Bedford County Judge William Sweeney to ask for a televised execution.
Savino, in a copyright interview published Tuesday by The News & Daily Advance of Lynchburg, said a public execution would send a message to other people who have turned to crime.
"It would somehow shock them into changing their life. That's what I pray about," Savino said in a telephone interview Monday from the Mecklenburg Correctional Center.
Savino said he was not worried about changing his mind as his execution date approaches. "I'm so aggravated at being here. I want out of here," he said. "This is really my only way out. I just want it to be over with."
Savino said a public execution also might help convince people that the death penalty is immoral.
"I just know that it's very wrong," he said. "And I think I'm qualified to say that because I have murdered someone, and I know how horrible it is."
Savino, 30, confessed to the November 1988 killing of Thos McWaters, 64, by beating him on the head with a hammer and repeatedly stabbing him.
When Savino pleaded guilty, he said he killed because he was driven crazy by cocaine and McWaters' repeated demands for sex.
"This wasn't a stranger I murdered. It was someone I knew," he said. "This person died at my hands and in such a horrible way."
Savino said he got the idea for a public execution about two weeks ago when he and other inmates were watching a television news show about the death penalty.
"I don't believe in the death penalty," he said. "I don't think I ever did but, I don't think I really thought about it until I got here."
The Virginia Supreme Court, which hears a mandatory appeal in all death penalty cases, recently affirmed Savino's sentence.
by CNB