ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 18, 1996 TAG: 9612180056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA LAFAY STAFF WRITER
When it was announced Tuesday that the U.S. Supreme Court had stayed the execution of convicted Virginia Beach killer Joseph O'Dell III, both houses of Italy's Parliament stood up and cheered.
The court's stay is temporary until it decides - probably in January - whether or not to consider O'Dell's appeal. But O'Dell's hold on the hearts and minds of Italian citizens appears permanent. In a phenomenon that has bewildered Virginia bureaucrats, O'Dell's story has dominated Italian newspapers, radio and television for two weeks.
"I really can't remember another story like this," said Vittorio Zucconi, who is writing about O'Dell for La Republica, Italy's largest newspaper.
"I mean, Joe O'Dell got a standing ovation in the Italian Parliament. ... The last time that happened was when we won the World Cup in 1980."
Both houses of Parliament had passed resolutions urging the government to intervene on O'Dell's behalf. Last week, Pope John Paul II called for clemency, appealing to Gov. George Allen and President Clinton. The president of the Italian senate wrote a letter to Vice President Al Gore. Italy's prime minister also appealed to Allen.
Italian citizens have bombarded Allen's office with pleas for clemency and cluttered the Internet with expressions of outrage. An Italian ambassador to the United States came to see Allen's lawyer. On Tuesday, after learning of the stay of execution, the mayor of Palermo made O'Dell an honorary citizen.
"This is the contribution of Palermo to save a human life and to affirm a culture that is an alternative to the culture of death," Mayor Leoluca Orlando announced.
Virginia has executed eight people this year, the most of any state in 1996. Five men have been executed since Nov. 21. Some members of the Allen administration are mystified by the passion with which the Italians have embraced O'Dell's cause.
"I guess they have a different system of justice over there," said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Attorney General Jim Gilmore. "I wonder if the Italian Parliament knows a woman was brutally raped and murdered."
Asked about the case during a press conference Monday, Allen acknowledged that it had "turned into somewhat of an international situation.''
"Why O'Dell?" pondered Allen spokesman Greg Crist. "I mean, we executed five [men] before him," and no one in Italy said anything."
There are several reasons, say Italian journalists covering the issue here.
First, the majority of Italians strongly oppose the death penalty. They do not trust government - any government - to decide who lives or dies. Most are Catholic and believe that only God should have such power.
"This is really a death penalty issue. It's not an O'Dell issue," said Martery Friesner, who writes for the Italian news agency ANSA.
Although Italians hate the death penalty, they love stories about it, said La Republica's Zucconi.
"Anything about the death penalty and anything about the Kennedys," he said.
O'Dell's story was originally picked up by the Catholic press in Italy. Then the Vatican's newspaper ran an editorial denouncing O'Dell's death sentence and the pope became involved. After that, the country's newspapers began competing with one another and the story exploded
Christmas and taxes have fueled the fire, according to Zucconi. He said Italians are in need of a diversion. Parliament is struggling with the budget and a large deficit.
"And since Italy will not cut social programs," Zucconi said, "the only alternative is to raise taxes. So everybody is up in arms against the government because of the taxes.
"This is also the Christmas season. So O'Dell was a terrific feel-good story. I mean, it might have turned out to be a feel-bad story, but feel-good or feel-bad, it doesn't matter. Feel something else. Everybody got into the act. That's the real story behind the story."
O'Dell isn't exactly sure how he became an Italian cause celebre. But he definitely appreciates it.
"I think it's the most wonderful, beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life," he said from his cell in Virginia's death house at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.
"They [the Italians] can look at this objectively and see it for what it is instead of just listening to one side of the story. They are wonderful people."
O'Dell, now 55, was sentenced to die for the rape and murder of Helen Schartner of Virginia Beach. She was found dead in a muddy field Feb. 6, 1985. She had been raped, sodomized, pistol-whipped and strangled.
He says he is innocent. His appeal contends that DNA tests three years after his 1986 conviction showed blood on his shirt did not match the victim's, and that tests of blood on his jacket were inconclusive.
It also seeks resentencing should the conviction be upheld, arguing that the jury should have been told O'Dell's long criminal history would have made him ineligible for parole. He had 14 felony convictions at the time of the slaying.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. (headshot) O'Dell. color. 2. A Roman boy helpsby CNBcelebrate after Virginia inmate Joseph O'Dell was granted a stay of
execution by the U.S. Supreme Court. color.