Victims' family prepares for execution of Paul Powell

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.


Six weeks ago, Lorraine Reed Whoberry received word that an execution date had been set for Paul Powell, the man who killed her 16-year-old daughter and almost killed her 14-year-old daughter 10 years ago.

Now that day is almost here.

"I'm amazed at how fast the time has gone by," she said.

Whoberry and her daughter, Kristie, who survived the attack, will attend Powell's execution Tues-day.

Whoberry has said that Tuesday's execution will be a "chapter closing" in her life, ending her family's nearly 10½-year involvement with the justice system that began on Jan. 29, 1999, the day Stacie died and Kristie was attacked.

In those 10½ years, Whoberry has often told her story, speaking to law enforcement agencies and other groups through the S.T.A.C.I.E. Foundation (Striving Towards Achieving Compassion, Intervention and Education), which she started in her daughter's memory.

She describes the long process of the justice system, which for her family included two trials and sentenc-ing hearings before Powell was eventually sentenced to die.

"We talk about the trials that we went through ... how often you get ready for a hearing and it doesn't happen. It was always like the carpet was yanked out from under our feet," Whoberry said.

But now that long road is coming to an end, she said.

Whoberry said she is looking forward to putting the execution behind her, so she can focus more on the S.T.A.C.I.E. Foundation and on helping other victims of crime.

Today, the Reed family is doing well, Whoberry said.

When she speaks at seminars, people always ask about Kristie, who usually does not go with her, she said.

"People always want to know how Kristie is doing," she said. "She's doing very well, considering everything she's been through."

Kristie was 14, an eighth-grader at Parkside Middle School, when Powell attacked her and left her for dead.

She still has visible scars on her neck from the attack, her mother said

Stacie, 16, was a freshman at Osbourn Park High School when she died. Her mother said Stacie was an outgoing teen who loved people and dreamed of becoming the first female Navy SEAL.

Though the Reed family will attend Powell's execution Tuesday, they have tried not to focus much on Powell as they've gone through the grieving and healing process over the years.

"I refused to let him control how I lived," Whoberry said. "I wasn't going to live in fear and I wasn't going to live in anger."

Whoberry said she and her family have relied on prayer, faith in God and support from others to help them get through the past 10 years.

"All of the support we get gives us the strength and faith to go on," she said. "It's been a huge part of our ability to grieve. We've been given this support and we can give it to oth-ers."

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.