Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 18, 1993 TAG: 9308180153
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"We've been down this road once before. Nothing's changed," said David Parsons, a spokesman for Attorney General Stephen Rosenthal.
Giarratano was sentenced to death for murdering a Norfolk woman and her daughter in 1979. The conviction was based largely on his own confessions, but Giarratano has said he isn't sure if he committed the crimes because he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time.
Following a wave of publicity, Wilder commuted Giarratano's death sentence in 1991 to life in prison. But former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry refused Giarratano's request for a new trial.
Members of the British aristocracy and lawyers who won freedom for convicted Irish Republican Army suspects were among 560 people who signed a petition seeking the new trial.
The signers also included violinist Yehudi Menuhin and actor Stephen Rea, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as an IRA terrorist in "The Crying Game."
On Monday, two members of the European Parliament visited Giarratano at the Augusta County Correctional Center. They presented the petition to Wilder's office Tuesday.
"I'm sure he'll review it, but it was addressed to the attorney general," said Lisa Katz, Wilder's deputy press secretary. "The impression has been that it's not within the powers of the governor to set a new trial. That would have to be decided by the attorney general, working with the courts."
Rosenthal, Terry's successor, received his copy of the petition Monday.
"His position hasn't changed from the position Terry took at the time," Parsons said.
Tom Megahy, a European Parliament member from England, criticized the limitations put on introducing new evidence in criminal cases in America. He said there have been a series of recent cases in Britain in which evidence discovered years after conviction has proven the innocence of some prisoners.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.