- 27/11/01

Pope's plea is new element in execution

Letter to Easley asks clemency for inmate scheduled to die Friday

Attorneys said Monday they hope Gov. Mike Easley will take a plea from Pope John Paul II into serious account when deciding whether to commute a condemned prisoner's sentence.

John Hardy Rose, who is to be executed early Friday at Central Prison, has told his attorney not to seek clemency for him. Rose, 43, was convicted in the 1991 slaying of his lover in Graham County.

At the urging of a Durham priest, the Vatican ambassador to the United States wrote a letter to Easley on the pope's behalf, asking him to spare Rose's life to promote "a culture of life and of nonviolence."

The request is believed to be the first from any pope to an N.C. governor for clemency in a specific case. Easley is Catholic.

"The church's position is that life is sacred from conception to natural death," Durham defense attorney Alex Charns said at a news conference. Charns attends Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, pastored by the Rev. David McBriar, who asked the pope to intervene.

The pope "is a world leader," Charns said. "He's spoken out on justice and peace in many forums."

Rose was convicted in 1992 for the 1st-degree murder of Patricia Stewart, with whom Rose said he had a secret love affair. Rose confessed that he beat and choked her in Robbinsville in January 1991 after drinking a quart of whiskey and smoking marijuana. He said he buried Stewart's body on his grandmother's farm.

The pope "prays that the life of Mr. Rose may be saved through your compassion and generosity of spirit," Montalvo wrote.