Victims’ mother will attend execution
{Family photo}
Kristie Reed today
Published: July 9, 2009
Updated: July 12, 2009
As the News & Messenger works to bring you the latest on the execution of convicted killed Paul Powell, a team of reporters and a photographer will report from the Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt, Va. starting Tuesday. Breaking news reporter Uriah A. Kiser will file video reports for our Web site and has also created a video blog about this event. Watch for them on insidenova.com and watch all of the blog entries in their entirety at youtube.com/whahooa.
It’s been 10 years since Paul Warner Powell killed Lorraine Reed Whoberry’s oldest daughter and nearly killed her youngest.
Next week, Whoberry will witness his execution. Her surviving daughter, Kristie Reed, will be there, too. And Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert will be by their side.
But, Whoberry said, her family has tried not to think much about Tuesday night, when Powell will be put to death in Virginia’s electric chair.
“It’s really hard to allow my mind to go there,” she said. “But we’ve managed to stay busy and not think about it a lot.”
In tomorrow’s News & Messenger, Whoberry talks about grieving and forgiveness in the years since 16-year-old Stacie Reed and her then-14-year-old sister, Kristie, were brutalized in their Yorkshire home.
The story is the first in a series the News & Messenger will undertake between now and Tuesday, chronicling what Whoberry calls “the last chapter” in her family’s long struggle to deal with what happened that day in Yorkshire.
The following stories will appear in Sunday’s News & Messenger:
—More from the Reed family on what the execution means to them.
—Overview of the January 1999 attacks that left the community reeling, along with comments from Powell’s lawyers on last-ditch efforts to save the killer’s life.
—Anatomy of an execution in Virginia
—Prince William County has more killers on death row than any other jurisdiction in Virginia. We take a look at past and current death row inmates.
—Look for a special report on our Web site at insidenova.com, including past stories, an interactive timeline of the case and links to court records in the case.
On Tuesday, execution day, we will have two reporters in Jarratt, Va., to cover the execution. Watch for updates at insidenova.com and in the News & Messenger.
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Reader Reactions
Those of you who want to serve as a witness at a Virginia execution, all you have to do is call the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt and ask to be put on their witness list. Just speak to the operations officer and he’ll send you a form to complete and return. It’s an eye opening experience, that’s for sure….
Tuesday can’t come fast enough…
Fitz, I agree. Prince William County is very lucky to have Mr. Ebert as commonwealth attorney.
I will be happy to see the series of articles concerning this crime. Everyone should be aware of the this horrible crime and of the conclusion. God bless Paul Ebert one of the good guys that enforces the law, supports our police officers and does his job to hold people accountable for what they do. Prince William County is very lucky to have Mr. Ebert enforcing the laws of the Commonwealth.
I don’t if this scum’s life will be chronicled. I think the people of Prince William and the State of Virginia be be assured that there is one less piece of garbage in their midst?
Have we gotten that far past public hangings? Good for Paul Ebert for going. This one is a particular nasty one.
Please don’t waste the space on galmorizing this killer any further. Use it instead to deliberately seek out and publish positive, joyful events.
I feel the same way the other posters here feel about chronicling the last days of that cowardly killer. To do so amounts to glorifying him when the world just wants to wipe him from their memories. Ignoring the past does not make it not to have happened but it prevents it from becoming the present. I would prefer to have a single sentence notification that his death was brought about on schedule. The fact that Paul Ebert will be there with the family is enough retribution to satisfy me. I hope NOBODY posts RIP after that notification hits this paper.
Potomac News- are you then going to print an obituary for him with a guest book to sign and funeral arrangements? Now isnt that stupid!?! Let me call my local ftd florist to order a nice arrangement..
I agree… this isn’t news that the public needs to hear. Do not glorify this mans sins by acknowledging his exsistance. Potomac news… pass this one up. it is not newsworthy anymore. Let the family deal thier own way by not seeng this creatures name in print anymore,
if they sold tickets to this guys execution it would sell out quicker than a hanna montana concert…
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