Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine denied clemency on the first death penalty case to cross his desk, upholding a Virginia jury’s 1999 decision despite his moral objection to capital punishment.
Dexter Lee Vinson, 42, of Portsmouth, was executed by lethal injection at 9 p.m. Thursday for the 1997 slaying of his girlfriend, Angela Felton.
“Having carefully reviewed the Petition for Clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reasons to doubt Mr. Vinson’s guilt or to invalidate the sentence recommended by the jury and imposed, and affirmed, by the courts,” Kaine said in a statement Thursday evening.
The governor’s decision came after Vinson was denied two stays of execution by the U.S. Supreme Court as it considers whether lethal injections are cruel and unusual punishment.
If the governor did commute the sentence, he would “come under withering criticism from all sections,” said Larry Sabato, head of University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
In the 2005 campaign, Kaine said his Catholic faith prevents him from supporting capital punishment, but if elected he would follow the letter of the law.
“We’ll see if that was an honest promise or a cynical test to win votes,” Michael Paranzino, president of Throw Away the Key, a group that supports the death penalty, said before the governor announced his decision.
Paranzino added, “There is no credible evidence that he isn’t the killer. … The governor should enact the will of the jury.”
A death penalty foe, not surprisingly, saw things differently.
“How can anybody be absolutely sure whether Vinson is guilty or not? It is a bad case that shows the flaws in Virginia’s death penalty system,” said Al Monroe, of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Monroe said Vinson had ineffective counsel and was arrested on perjured testimony.
Three witnesses testified they saw Vinson at varying points in the day forcing Felton into his car, choking her and dragging an object into an abandoned house where Felton was found. Vinson’s fingerprints were found in several places in and around that house. Felton’s DNA matched blood found on Vinson’s shorts.
Vinson was found guilty in 1998 of murder, object sexual penetration, abduction with intent to defile and carjacking. A jury delivered four capital sentences in 1999.
“It is demeaning to the governor to put this in a political framework. This is the most serious thing any governor has to do, and it deserves a bit of dignity and respect,” Hall said.
More on the Vinson Case
» His was to be the 95th execution in Virginia since the 1976 reinstatement of capital punishment
» Angela Felton was 25 when she was killed.
» Her three children, now teenagers, survive her.
