THE GOVERNOR WAS RIGHT

Destruction of evidence is a scandal at any time. Many people have been freed on evidence such as that which was destroyed in this case. The prisoner should in fact be released as justice cannot be seen to be done in this case

The man who would have become the 1000th person executed in the US since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976 has had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. The Governor of Virginia, Mark Warner, on Tuesday issued his first grant of clemency in a death penalty case, sparing the life of Robin Lovitt, a day before the convicted murderer's scheduled execution. Mr Warner said in a statement that the destruction by an Arlington County Court clerk of DNA evidence that might have cleared Lovitt convinced him that Lovitt should instead spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. "In this case, the actions of an agent of the Commonwealth, in a manner contrary to the express direction of the law, comes at the expense of a defendant facing society's most severe and final sanction," Mr Warner said. "The Commonwealth must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out, it is done fairly." Mr Warner, a likely Democrat candidate for president in 2008, has previously allowed the executions of 11 men to proceed.

Lovitt, 41, was convicted and sentenced to death for the November 1998 stabbing of Clayton Dicks, 45, during a robbery at a pool hall in Arlington. During a 1999 trial, prosecutors said Lovitt went there to steal money but was confronted by Mr Dicks. They said Lovitt grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed Mr Dicks six times. Lovitt admitted he was at the pool hall on the night of the killing but said he was in the bathroom while Mr Dicks fought with another man. He said that after he emerged and found that Mr Dicks had been stabbed, he grabbed the cash box and fled.

Lovitt's lawyers have argued that DNA tests using the latest technology - now impossible because evidence, including the scissors, was discarded - might have exonerated their client. Early forensic tests were inconclusive. His legal team included the former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who led the special investigation into president Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Interest in Lovitt's fate, and Mr Warner's decision, is intense. Officials at the Virginia Department of Corrections said on Tuesday that they had received press calls from Australia, France and Italy about the execution.

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