Condemned killer files for clemency

Paul Powell's attorneys admit their client has been "bizarre and obnoxious" but say he should be spared the death penalty.

By: Amanda Stewart | Inside NoVA
Published: March 03, 2010

MANASSAS, Va. -- Attorneys for Paul Powell, who killed a 16-year-old Yorkshire girl in 1999, have filed a clemency petition asking Gov. Bob McDonnell to stop his execution scheduled for later this month.

Powell, 31, is set to die by electrocution on March 18.

In their petition to the governor, the killer’s attorneys cite errors in evidence presented to jurors during the sentencing phase of Powell’s trial.

Powell’s attorneys said that jurors were given evidence that Powell had been convicted of “two or perhaps three, prior capital murders when in fact he had no serious history of prior violent felonies on his record,” they wrote in a summary of the clemency petition.

Courts have previously ruled that mistake is not enough to overturn Powell’s capital murder conviction.

Powell was convicted of capital murder for killing and attempting to rape 16-year-old Stacie Reed at her family’s Yorkshire home on Jan. 29, 1999. He was also convicted of raping and attempting to kill her then 14-year-old sister Kristie, who survived.

Powell was first convicted of capital murder in 2000, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned that verdict.

Thinking he no longer could face the death penalty, Powell wrote a taunting letter to Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert detailing the crime.

He was then charged and convicted of capital murder again in 2003 and sentenced to death.

“Powell has never denied that he murdered Stacie Reed, nor has he denied that his behavior has been extremely bizarre and obnoxious in this case,” Powell’s attorneys wrote in the summary of their clemency petition.

But, they said, the mistake in evidence about Powell’s criminal history is enough to stop the execution.

Powell was set to die in the electric chair in July, but the U.S. Supreme Court postponed the execution, saying it needed more time to decide if it would review the case.

The Supreme Court decided in January not to intervene.

Unless McDonnell stops the execution, Powell will be put to death at 9 p.m. on March 18.

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