DEAD MAN'S CLASS ACTION STILL ALIVE

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

DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993                   TAG: 9303210182
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
DEAD MAN'S CLASS ACTION STILL ALIVE
Syvasky Poyner has been put to death in Virginia's electric chair, but a legal challenge of the means of execution is still alive, one of Poyner's lawyers said.
The Supreme Court denied a request to delay Poyner's execution but has yet to act on a request that it consider an appeal of his class-action suit that argues that death by electrocution violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
If the high court agrees to hear the case, Poyner's lawyers could get the opportunity to present scientific evidence in a U.S. courtroom on the effects of the electric chair on the human body.
Or, a court could agree to hear arguments and take evidence on the question either as a post-trial or preliminary matter in another Virginia capital murder case.
One of Poyner's lawyers, Alexander H. Slaughter, said Friday that he and his firm will continue in the effort should the Supreme Court keep the class-action suit alive.
A Loudoun County circuit judge this year agreed to hold such a hearing but the charge in that case was then reduced from capital to first-degree murder, so the hearing was never held.
Poyner was put to death Thursday for killing five women in a 1984 crime spree. The execution went off without complication, officials at the Greensville Correctional Center said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB