THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 30, 1995 TAG: 9505300046
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
A Public Safety subcommittee of the state Senate may hold a hearing next week to explore reports that death-row inmate Willie Lloyd Turner had access to a loaded gun while awaiting execution, according to the legislator who heads the panel.
Sen. Richard J. Holland, D-Windsor, said he is looking for assurance that the one-day investigation by Allen administration officials, which deemed the claim unfounded, was thorough enough.
If he does not get that assurance, Holland said he could call Corrections Department officials before the Senate Finance Committee's Public Safety Subcommittee, which he chairs.
``On Friday, Jerry Kilgore said there'd be a thorough investigation,'' Holland said, referring to the public safety secretary. ``On Saturday, (Department of Corrections Director) Ron Angelone said the investigation was completed and it was a hoax. That's a rather short, thorough investigation.''
Turner's attorney, Walter J. Walvick, uncovered a loaded handgun and 12 extra bullets in a typewriter kept within reach of Turner's death row cell.
Turner was executed Thursday by lethal injection for killing a Franklin jewelry store owner in 1978.
Walvick reported finding the gun late Thursday when he searched the typewriter in an Emporia motel room. His wife and two reporters for The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star were present.
In interviews with the newspapers before his execution, Turner once implied that he had access to a gun in the death house and could use it to ``leave at any time.''
Walvick said Turner had told him to examine the typewriter after the execution. Prison officials turned over the typewriter to the attorney Thursday night.
Saturday, Angelone released a statement calling Walvick's claim unfounded and questioning whether the incident was ``an elaborate hoax.''
Turner's fingerprints were not on the gun, the bullets or a bag that held the spare rounds, Angelone's statement said. He called it unlikely that Turner had acquired a gun, since all visitors to the death house must pass through a metal detector.
But Holland said he wants to talk with officials in the Department of Corrections and the Department of Public Safety to be sure the report should not be investigated further.
``If I don't get a satisfactory explanation, we could ask the Department of Corrections to appear at our regularly scheduled meeting on June the 8th to look into it,'' Holland said.
``Right now, I don't have the answers I want, but because fingerprints aren't on the gun or on the bag doesn't mean it's a hoax.''
Neither Angelone nor Kilgore could be reached Monday night, and spokesmen for both departments would not comment. Both spokesmen did say, however, that their departments will cooperate with Holland and other members of the subcommittee.
Walvick, meanwhile, said he plans to meet today with members of his Washington law firm, Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin, to discuss the matter and consider how to proceed. He called the prospect of a Senate hearing ``encouraging.''
``It's impossible that it was an adequate investigation,'' Walvick said. ``They talked to me for 30 minutes . . . and didn't talk to the reporters at all. It's not going to end because what they've done is they've taken my good name and dragged it through the mud. They've all but accused me of committing a crime.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Richard J. Holland
KEYWORDS: MURDER DEATH ROW CAPITAL PUNISHMENT VIRGINIA
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