Death Row Inmate May Get Retrial

   25/01

By Brooke A. Masters 

A Virginia death row inmate should get a new trial because one of the jurors and the prosecutors at his 1994 capital trial concealed the fact that the juror had been married to a prosecution witness, a federal judge ruled this week

  Michael Wayne Williams, 34, was within one hour of execution in 1999 when the U.S. Supreme Court took his case. The justices ordered the lower courts to consider whether Williams's right to a fair trial had been compromised

  Now U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer has ruled that the inmate deserves a new trial on charges that he killed Morris Keller Jr., 45, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Keller, 34, in Cumberland County in 1993. The first trial was flawed, Spencer wrote, because the jury forewoman lied on three screening questions, and the prosecutor -- who had handled her divorce proceedings while in private practice -- did not correct her

  "If the constitutional guarantees which we hold dear are to have any meaning in the context of a criminal trial, a defendant must be entitled to an impartial jury; a jury not populated with persons who bring prejudice, bias or a closed mind to the serious task of judging another human being and making critical decisions regarding the deprivation of their liberty or their very existence as a living soul," Spencer wrote in a 27-page opinion

  Williams's case is one of eight Virginia capital murders to be considered by the Supreme Court since 1999, when  the state's fastest-in-the-nation system of capital punishment began coming under unusual judicial scrutiny and public criticism. The high court has found for the inmates three times; two cases are pending

  Randy Davis, a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore (R), said the state has not yet seen Spencer's opinion and has not decided whether to appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

  But one of Williams's attorneys, Barbara Hartung, said her client, who learned of the ruling on his birthday, "is thrilled. Mr. Williams is very pleased. He was entitled to an impartial jury. We're looking forward to the next step."   Williams and a co-defendant were charged with robbing the Kellers at gunpoint, raping Elizabeth Keller and then shooting both of them execution style. Williams is also serving several life sentences for four unrelated murders in Prince Edward County

  For death penalty opponents, Williams's case has come to symbolize the Commonwealth's unwillingness to reconsider possible mistakes. The state argued that the federal courts should not consider the juror issue because Williams's attorneys did not learn about the marriage until Williams had completed his state appeals. The high court rejected that argument 9 to 0

  After considering the issue, Spencer found that the juror's lies could not be considered "honest mistakes."