Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990                   TAG: 9005240236
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

EXECUTION DATE JUNE 29/ SAVINO ASKS COURT TO FILM HIS DEATH

Savino made the same request of a Bedford County Circuit Court judge Wednesday, but was turned down. Judge William Sweeney, who set Savino's June 29 execution date, said the television issue was out of his jurisdiction.

Savino, 30, was sentenced to death last year after pleading guilty to bludgeoning his lover to death in October 1988. He told the judge that a television viewing of his death might deter others from committing crimes like his.

"I would like to request that since my trial and sentencing were public, that my execution be made public," Savino said. Some aspects of Savino's case were televised because Bedford County Circuit Court allows cameras in the courtroom as part of an experiment sponsored by the Virginia General Assembly.

If it were up to him, Sweeney said, he would block cameras from filming the execution. Savino's attorney, Hugh Jones, said later Wednesday that Savino has mailed a similar request to the Supreme Court.

Officials at the state Department of Corrections and Attorney General's office said they had not received any requests from Savino and did not believe such a procedure would be allowed.

"I don't know of anything in law that would prohibit it, but I also don't know of anything to allow it," said corrections spokesman Wayne Farrar. "I believe our policy would be not to allow it."

Burt Rohrer, spokesman for the attorney general, said statute specifies who should attend an execution - including a doctor, corrections officials, citizens, defense attorneys and clergymen. There's no mention of a camera crew, Rohrer said.

Although the office has not made a formal ruling, "We think it implicitly indicates that it wouldn't be proper," Rohrer said.

Barring further appeal, Savino's case will have taken significantly less time than most death penalty cases in the state, Farrar said. Most capital murder cases stretch out over many years as attorneys pursue appeals, he said. Some have gone on more than 10 years before appeals were exhausted.

Savino, slender and pale, showed no emotion during the 10-minute hearing Wednesday and said he was satisfied with the set date.

After "carefully and competently" considering his options, Savino had no intention of appealing his case any further, he said in a letter to the judge this month. "I don't want any more delays and I want the sentence carried out," Savino said in the handwritten letter on notebook paper.

If an outside party were to appeal his case on his behalf, Savino would "vehemently object," he said in his letter to the judge. "I feel they simply have no right to tell me that I must live longer."

Savino, 30, pleaded guilty last year to the capital murder and robbery of Thos McWaters Jr.

He told a judge that "something snapped" in his mind the night of Nov. 29, 1988, when he hammered and stabbed to death his 64-year-old lover.

McWaters' demands for sex were no longer tolerable, Savino said. Savino said he had also used cocaine that night and was feeling "extreme paranoia."

Savino and McWaters met in 1980 when Savino worked for McWaters' construction company in New York. While Savino was serving time in a New York prison for robbery, McWaters called him, visited him and brought him money.

When he was released from a New York prison in February 1988 after a robbery convictioon, Savino moved in to McWaters' 200-acre estate south of Bedford. McWaters had moved to Bedford three years earlier.

Savino had been convicted of crimes - including robbery, grand larceny and criminal trespass - six times since 1976 before his conviction last year.

Sweeney in July 1989 sentenced Savino to death in the electric chair. In April of this year, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld Savino's sentence, saying his long criminal record showed he was likely to commit further violent crimes.

Justice Roscoe B. Stephenson Jr. wrote that the manner by which McWaters was killed also could be considered in judging Savino's future dangerousness. "Undeniably, the manner of the murder was excessive and brutal," he wrote.

Eight people have been executed in Virginia since the death penalty was restored in 1982.