Gov. Tim Kaine on Monday stopped the execution of a man on death row for a 1996 triple murder, saying that Percy Levar Walton is so profoundly mentally ill and impaired that he did not understand he was about to die.
The governor gave Walton a life sentence without the possibility of parole just a day before he would have become the 100th person to be put to death in Virginia since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment.
Walton had pleaded guilty in 1997 to killing Jessie and Elizabeth Kendrick and Archie Moore in Danville. His attorneys have spent years fighting the death penalty imposed on him on the grounds that he is both mentally retarded and schizophrenic.
He was first set to die in 2003, but that date was pushed back while federal courts reviewed Walton’s mental competence, eventually finding him fit for execution.
Kaine first reviewed the matter in 2006 and delayed Walton’s death for further review of his mental condition. Since then, Walton continued to live in a “self-imposed state of isolation,” communicated infrequently, and had no personal possessions or interest in contact with the outside world, the governor said.
“In light of this information, I am again compelled to find that one cannot reasonably conclude that Walton is fully aware of the punishment he is about to suffer and why he is about to suffer it,” Kaine said.
The decision drew praise from death penalty opponents and criticism from Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell, who said he respectfully disagreed with Kaine.
“Evidence of an inmate’s competency is more effectively evaluated by a judicial officer,” McDonnell said.
Jon Sheldon, board president of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Kaine’s decision “would have been very difficult for any governor not to make, from either party.”
“It was a case that just cried out for clemency,” Sheldon said.
