Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 25, 1995 TAG: 9508250101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a decision by U.S. District Judge James C. Turk, who had ordered that Correll be released within six months unless retried.
Turk ruled that a confession used against Correll was tainted by two previous illegal confessions. The two earlier confessions, obtained by police who continued interrogating Correll after he said he wanted a lawyer, were not used in court.
The appeals court ruled that the third confession was legal. Correll confessed while discussing results of a lie-detector test with police.
``But even if it had been inadmissible, relief would not be appropriate because the admission of the confession was at most harmless error,'' Judge William W. Wilkins Jr. wrote in the unanimous opinion.
Correll was convicted of robbing and murdering Charles W. Bousman Jr. on Aug. 11, 1985. Correll stopped Bousman's car on Interstate 581 in Roanoke, choked him until he lost consciousness, put him in the trunk of the car, and drove with two other men to Franklin County.
They drove to a wooded area, where Correll robbed Bousman and stabbed him twice in the chest with a hunting knife.
by CNB