THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406260112
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: Medium
What most bothered Wilder was the knowledge that Bassette would be the first Virginian in modern times executed solely on the testimony of accomplices.
{REST} The three witnesses who testified against Bassette were drug addicts and career criminals facing the chair themselves. They implicated Bassette, now 49, but never could agree on the events of the night of the murder.
``I think when you're asking for someone's life it's not an irrelevant question, the quality of the evidence,'' said William H. Wright Jr., a lawyer representing Bassette. ``These people are scum. He's still in jail for the rest of his life based on Betty Winfield, `Dap' Cook and Jeanette Green. I don't think they're good enough for that.''
Bassette was sentenced to die after being convicted in 1980 of killing 16-year-old gas station attendant Albert Lee Burwell Jr. in Henrico County.
During the trial, Robinetta Wall testified that Tyrone Jackson had confessed to the murder but that she didn't believe him and thought he was showing off.
Only later did Bassette's lawyers learn that prosecutors withheld an earlier statement in which Wall said she believed Jackson's confession because he ``had shot people before'' and ``no reason existed for Jackson to confess to her if it were not true,'' records show. Jackson was the man police originally charged, then released.
Lawyers working on Bassette's case found the withheld statement about 12 years after the crime, when they got a look at an FBI file.
After the trial, Wall once again said she believed Jackson's confession and recanted her testimony. She accused prosecutors of coaching her.
``She states that . . . she was directed by the prosecution to claim that Jackson's confession was unbelievable because he was a braggart,'' according to court papers.
By failing to provide defense lawyers with Wall's early statement, false or misleading evidence reached the jury, Bassette's lawyers argued.
``I don't think anyone can conclude that the trial would not have been different if Robinetta Wall had testified in accordance with the first statement,'' Wright said. ``I'm glad that the governor granted him clemency, but I think that the proper forum for this is through a new trial.''
Wright said he does not think prosecutor H. Albert Nance Jr., now deceased, knew about Wall's earlier statement, but contends he should have. Under state law, prosecutors are responsible for such information. Wright also believes officers working the case discussed Wall's changing tale.
The other main concern raised by Bassette's lawyers was that his death sentence was based on future dangerousness. In 1966 he was convicted of wounding Petersburg motel clerk James Wallace during an armed robbery. Yet his lawyers say they have strong evidence that he is innocent of that crime. Throughout, Bassette has maintained his innocence of both crimes.
After the 1966 shooting, George Johnson, a friend of Bassette's, admitted to being the gunman and offered to come forward to clear Bassette's name. But Bassette refused his friend's offer, saying it would mean that Johnson would be convicted along with him.
In pleading for Bassette's life, his lawyers tried to get Johnson to come forward, but he refused, saying he had led a law-abiding life for 18 years.
``I'm all for saving anybody's life,'' Johnson said in court papers, ``but I can't see putting my life on the line for something that happened, you know, 26 years ago.''
{KEYWORDS} DEATH ROW VIRGINIA
by CNB