Paul Powell - Virginia - 03/18/10

[ScoopD]

MANASSAS, Va. -- A Manassas man sentenced to die after he bragged in a letter to prosecutors that he killed a teenage girl and tried to rape her has won a delay in his scheduled execution.

Twice-convicted capital murderer Paul Warner Powell was scheduled to die Feb. 15. A federal judge gave his attorneys until March 9 to file an appeal.

"It doesn't surprise me," said Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert. "I knew when [the date] was set it would be a one in a million chance that it would go through on schedule."
 
Powell, 28, was convicted of the January 1999 attack on the teenage sisters in Prince William. He raped and stabbed a 14-year-old girl and killed 16-year-old Stacie Reed.

He was convicted of capital murder in 2000. But the Virginia Supreme Court declared his actions two separate crimes, making him ineligible for the death penalty.

While awaiting a second trial, Powell sent Ebert a letter bragging that he tried to rape Stacie. That made the slaying a capital crime and a second jury recommended the death penalty in 2003.

source:
http://www.nbc4.com/news/10980024/detail.html

[Eryn Baugh]

[ScoopD]

[frankenstien]

  "fat free" Pam   

[ScoopD]

Haaaaaaaaa   don't I wish...     

[JulieJS33]

Powell, 28, was convicted of the January 1999 attack on the teenage sisters in Prince William. He raped and stabbed a 14-year-old girl and killed 16-year-old Stacie Reed.

He was convicted of capital murder in 2000. But the Virginia Supreme Court declared his actions two separate crimes, making him ineligible for the death penalty.

It is always a technicality, isn't it?  Police pull over someone for a traffic stop and find drugs in the trunk of their car...  But the driver doesn't get held responsible because the police didn't have a search warrant.  WHO CARES how they found them...  The facts are the facts.  It drives me nuts! 

Look at the WHOLE picture...  He is slime and needs to be zapped!!  Give it to him! 

Julie

[Jeff1857]

A federal judge has rejected an appeal from a Virginia death row inmate who was sentenced to death only after he wrote a taunting letter to prosecutors that included a detailed confession of his crime.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria rejected arguments by lawyers for Paul Powell, of Manassas, who was sentenced to death for the murder and attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1999.

Powell was originally convicted and sentenced to death, but the Supreme Court of Virginia tossed out the death sentence.

Powell mistakenly thought the court's ruling made it impossible for him to ever receive the death penalty, so he wrote a letter to Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert in which he admitted new details of his crime.

Armed with Powell's confession, Ebert put him on trial again in 2003, and won a new conviction and a new death sentence.

Powell's lawyer says he plans to appeal the ruling.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Open Mouth Insert Foot. Open Vein Insert Needle. 

[Michael]

 

[Jeff1857]

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A panel of federal judges has refused the appeal of a Virginia man who bragged to prosecutors that he killed a teenage girl and tried to rape her after he thought he couldn't face the death penalty.

In a 2-1 ruling Wednesday, justices rejected Paul Warner Powell's argument that he couldn't be convicted twice for the same crime.

Powell was convicted of Stacie Reed's capital murder in 2000, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned that verdict, ruling he could not be executed because prosecutors lacked evidence that he tried to either rape or rob the Manassas teenager.

Powell then wrote the taunting letter to prosecutors. He was convicted again in 2003.

The dissenting justice said Powell's conviction constituted double jeopardy and must be thrown out.

http://www.nbc12.com/global/category.asp?C=128874

[Jeff1857]

Opinion of the 4th Circuit is here:

http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/dailyopinions/opinion.pdf/083.P.pdf

[Granny B]

Powell then wrote the taunting letter to prosecutors. He was convicted again in 2003.


The dumb    

 

[JeffB]

Interesting turn of events - the cat sends the prosecution a letter and finds himself on death row as a result..  Jeff said it best, " Open Mouth Insert Foot. Open Vein Insert Needle". 

Seems to me that justice is going to be a reality for this creep..  How fitting..

[Moh]

Killer’s execution date set

By KARI PUGH

Published: May 19, 2009

A killer who landed on death row via a taunting letter to Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert is set to die by lethal injection July 14.

Circuit Court Judge Lon E. Farris on Tuesday set the summer execution date for Paul Warner Powell, who killed a teenage girl and brutalized her sister in Yorkshire in 1999.

The Manassas man has now exhausted all but one appeal — the Supreme Court.

Ebert said he doesn’t think the case will go that far.

“Unless something unusual happens, he will be executed that day,” he said.

Powell, now 29, stabbed 16-year-old Stacie Reed and her 14-year-old sister Kristie, leaving their stepfather to find them when he got home from work. Kristie, though her throat was slashed, survived. Her sister, who suffered a stab wound to the heart, did not.

Powell was originally convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2000, but the Supreme Court of Virginia tossed out the conviction.

Justices ruled that the attacks on Stacie and Kristie were separate crimes, and did not rise to capital murder.

After that ruling, Powell sent a letter laced with profanity to Ebert, giving chilling details of Stacie’s death.

He wrote about attempting to rape the struggling girl before stabbing her to death.

“Since the Supreme Court said I can’t be charged with capital murder again, I can tell you what I just told you because I no longer have to worry about the death penalty. And y’all are supposed to be so … smart,” Powell wrote.

The letter gave Ebert evidence of a second felony in the commission of the killing, and charged Powell with capital murder again.

He was convicted in 2003, and the appeals began soon after. Through the years, state appeals courts and the Virginia Supreme Court have upheld his conviction.

In the federal appeal just decided, Powell’s attorneys argued his conviction should be thrown out on the grounds his original legal counsel was ineffective. They also argued that trying him a second time in Stacie’s death amounted to double jeopardy.

The appeals court disagreed.

Communities editor Kari Pugh can be reached at 703-878-8056.

http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/killers_execution_date_set/35971/

[JeffB]

“Since the Supreme Court said I can’t be charged with capital murder again, I can tell you what I just told you because I no longer have to worry about the death penalty. And y’all are supposed to be so … smart,” Powell wrote.

“Unless something unusual happens, he will be executed that day,” he said.

  How poetic...  That is AWESOME..  Die you freaking scumbag. 

[Mastodon]

When I first read the title I thought it said PA and said to myself: Why was this even posted? 

July 14 will be a good day. A serial killer in Ohio and a child killer in Virginia will both be put to death.