Powell asks governor to step aside in bid for clemency

RICHMOND -- Citing a potential conflict of interest, attorneys for a condemned man have asked Gov. Bob McDonnell to let someone else decide whether next week's scheduled execution should take place.

In their request for clemency filed last month but made public Thursday, Paul Warner Powell's attorneys say McDonnell's court pleadings as attorney general hindered their case. They ask that at least the initial clemency decision go to "an individual or entity that does not have a conflict."

McDonnell disputed the claim Thursday and said he expects to announce his decision on whether to grant clemency on Friday.

The decision to grant clemency is discretionary and rests exclusively with the governor. McDonnell said he would make his decision based on arguments presented by Powell's attorneys.

"I know that regardless of what happened in the Attorney General's Office that I can make a fair and impartial decision based on what's been presented in the petition," McDonnell said in an interview.

McDonnell, who resigned as attorney general last year to run for governor, said he also would announce a change in the clemency process Friday to give a more timely answer to condemned inmates. Governors traditionally have waited until the day of an execution to announce their decisions.

"We're going to change the process ... to try to make it a little more fair and just and give a little more notice on decisions," McDonnell said.

McDonnell would not provide further details.

Powell, 31, is scheduled to die March 18 in Virginia's electric chair for attempting to rape his teenage friend Stacie Reed and then stabbing her to death when she fought off his advances.

In the clemency request, Powell's attorneys say the conflict is not just that McDonnell defended Powell's conviction in state and federal appeals but that his pleadings in the case likely were the reason the courts have not reviewed the issues underpinning Powell's clemency request.

The petition centers on a mistake on a copy of Powell's criminal record that was given to jurors at his sentencing. The error made it appear that Powell had been convicted of other capital crimes.

Powell's attorneys say the Virginia courts never addressed the error largely because the Attorney General's Office "prevented such a review by its blatantly inaccurate description of the false evidence." McDonnell's office also argued that the error was defaulted because Powell's trial lawyers failed to object, and the Virginia Supreme Court agreed.

"The unique and compelling circumstances of this case call for executive action," the clemency petition says. "Inaction would betray the pledge to maintain the complete integrity of the capital punishment system in Virginia."

They ask that McDonnell commute Powell's sentence to life in prison.

Virginia ranks second only to Texas in the number of executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Powell's would be the first for McDonnell, who took office seven weeks ago.

"I'll make a fair decision," McDonnell said.