THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040422
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Lawyers for death-row inmate Dennis W. Stockton on Wednesday filed a plea for a final review of the case by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The filing comes 13 days after key prosecution witness Randy G. Bowman, in a newspaper interview, said he did not hear Stockton agree to a murder-for-hire deal that led to Stockton's conviction and sent him to death row.
Stockton, convicted in 1983, is facing execution. He was charged in 1982 with the 1978 murder of Kenneth Wayne Arnder, 18, whose body was found near Mount Airy, N.C. Arnder was shot in the head and his hands were hacked off above the wrists.
During the trial, Bowman testified that he heard Stockton accept $1,500 from another felon to kill Arnder over a soured drug deal. Prosecutors were able to seek the death penalty because Bowman claimed it was a contract killing. Bowman was the only witness who said he had heard the deal.
But on April 20, Bowman told a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot that he never heard the deal take place.
On Wednesday, Stockton's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to review the records and determine whether there have been any constitutional violations in Stockton's case. The order to review the case would be issued if at least four of the nine justices vote for a rehearing.
Stockton's lawyers have said since 1990 that Stockton deserves a new hearing because the state failed to disclose evidence that could have helped Stockton during his trial, including details of an alleged deal that prosecutors made with Bowman in exchange for his testimony.
But now a new element has been added: Bowman's 11th-hour recantation.
``Bowman has now admitted that his entire trial testimony was, in fact, a lie,'' the petition said. ``He now admits that he never heard (Stockton) either agree to kill Arnder or accept money for doing so.''
Stockton's prosecutor has said the case should be reinvestigated and Stockton should not be executed until questions about Bowman's belated change of heart are answered.
Anthony King, one of Stockton's lawyers, said the state Attorney General's Office probably will file a reply in 30 days. Then the Supreme Court will decide whether to review the case. ``I expect to know . . . before the court goes on its summer recess at the end of June,'' King said.
On Tuesday, Stockton's lawyers also filed a motion to reconsider an earlier judgment with the federal court in Roanoke, based on Bowman's recantation. On Dec. 5, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a plea to review the case in light of new evidence, then denied a plea for a rehearing on Jan. 5.
Stockton's last option to avoid the death chamber will be to seek clemency from Gov. George F. Allen. Stockton has said he expects to be executed by mid- to late-summer. He has chosen to die by lethal injection.
Prosecutors say Stockton killed Arnder in Patrick County, Va., then moved his body to North Carolina. No physical evidence linked Stockton to Arnder or the murder to Virginia, and no weapon was found. But Bowman testified that he was at the house of Tommy Lee McBride in Mount Airy when he heard Stockton agree to kill Arnder for $1,500.
Yet on April 20, Bowman told a reporter: ``I don't know if they (McBride and Stockton) made a deal. I was in there to sell something. The subject came up. . . He (McBride) would like to have him dead, so I'm out of there. I've never said I heard - I didn't hear Stockton say, `I'm going to do it.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Dennis W. Stockton, left, faces execution by lethal injection
largely the result of recanted testimony of Randy G. Bowman, right.
KEYWORDS: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT APPEAL MURDER by CNB