Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 8, 1993 TAG: 9302080072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ATTORNEY HURRIED TO BUY TIME FOR HIMSELF, CONDEMNED KILLER
Tony Anderson was relaxing at home, watching the Super Bowl's meaningless final quarter, when he answered a call that sent him into an uncharted legal "whirlwind."Mickey Davidson, Anderson was told, no longer wanted to be executed on Wednesday night for killing his wife and two stepdaughters in Saltville. He wanted Anderson to save him from the electric chair.
Anderson, a Roanoke lawyer who in three capital murder trials had successfully defended two clients, had been assigned to defend Davidson only the week before. He never had met Davidson and knew nothing more of his case than what he had read in newspaper accounts of the 1990 crime.
"The pressure in this capital case was much more intense because of the timing," Anderson said.
He spent the rest of that Sunday night and the next day preparing an appeal to argue before Smyth County Circuit Judge Charles Smith in Abingdon.
The last 18 people executed in Virginia all were allowed technical reviews to determine whether they were fairly tried, sentenced and represented. Anderson argued that his client deserved the same, even though Davidson had waived that right of review until he was days away from being put to death.
Smith refused to postpone the execution, ruling that Anderson had to file a petition showing evidence of unfairness to Davidson.
"The court said, `You either file the petition or your client goes to the electric chair.' If I file something that's wrong, it's bound to be dismissed and he goes to the electric chair," Anderson said. "That's a pretty bad dilemma to be in."
He spent the next day - the day before the scheduled execution - writing an appeal to the state Supreme Court. Because Davidson was running out of time, Anderson dictated much of the document over his cellular phone as he drove to Richmond. A paralegal in his Roanoke office typed it and faxed the completed document to a Richmond where Anderson could pick it up.
Anderson met with Barry Weinstein, director of the Virginia Post-Conviction Assistance Project in Richmond.
Weinstein said there was more at stake than Davidson's execution: If they lost, "It would change the entire posture of how cases are litigated fully and fairly in Virginia."
They worked into the evening to strengthen the appeal, which was filed as soon as the court opened Wednesday.
A few hours later, the Virginia State Bar came to Davidson's defense, a development Anderson called critical.
Bar President William Rakes, in a supportive brief filed in the Supreme Court, said a stay of execution "was necessary to safeguard the state's capital litigation system."
Rakes wrote: "It appears to the Bar that in this case it has put one of its members in a position where he can neither perform in the professional and competent manner on which this court and this Bar insist nor withdraw without prejudice to his client."
At the end of what Anderson called "a 48-hour whirlwind," the Supreme Court agreed that Anderson deserved more time to prepare Davidson's defense.
Now, Anderson has two months to research Davidson's case before he goes back before the Supreme Court.
"It think it was a very fair ruling for everybody concerned," Anderson said. "It's fair to the state, to Mickey Davidson and other death-row inmates, and it's fair for every other attorney who hears capital cases after this one."