Do Not Execute Dexter Lee Vinson!
Dexter Lee Vinson
April 27, 2006
Virginia
Dexter Lee Vinson was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the May 1996 murder of his ex-girlfriend Angela Felton, a 25-year-old Portsmouth mother of three. It is alleged that Vinson abducted her from her home in the Fairwood Homes subdivision, took her to a nearby vacant house, and killed her. In conjunction with his conviction for a capital offense, Vinson was convicted of three separate non-capital offenses and received a life sentence for each.
Vinson was assigned an execution date by the Portsmouth Circuit Court despite Vinson’s questionable mental condition, allegations that the prosecution improperly withheld evidence, as well as claims that call into question the competency of Vinson’s defense. Two mental health experts testified during the penalty phase of the trial that Vinson suffers from “intermittent explosive disorder.” As a result, Vinson was unable to conform his conduct to the lawful requirements at the time of the crimes. Furthermore, the U.S. Fourth Circuit of Appeals unanimously rejected Vinson’s claim that his trial attorneys had a conflict of interest notwithstanding the fact that Vinson’s second chair counsel was suing Vinson’s lead counsel for employment discrimination. Vinson initially raised this claim in his state habeas proceedings, but the Virginia Supreme Court held that the claim was barred because it could have been brought on direct appeal. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, required by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act to give “great deference” to state court’s judgments, found that Vinson did not establish cause to overcome the Virginia’s Supreme Court’s procedural bar.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals also dismissed several claims that Vinson’s constitutional right to a competent defense was violated and that the prosecution improperly withheld evidence regarding contradictory eyewitness testimony. Vertley Hunter, a key eyewitness for the prosecution, claimed on one occasion that she had seen the perpetrator at a time when Vinson was at work, which conflicts with testimony Hunter made in an affidavit submitted in the state habeas proceedings in which she claimed she never saw Vinson again after the time of the crime. Moreover, in another affidavit, Hunter claimed to have seen the perpetrator at a time that Vinson was already in policy custody. Hunter also has stated that the prosecution threatened her into testifying.
Certainly the issues outlined above make execution of Vinson unacceptable. If Vinson is executed April 27 it will be the first execution to occur under recently elected Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine. During his campaign, Gov. Kaine stated that while he is against the death penalty, he would carry out the laws of Virginia nonetheless. It should also be noted that Virginia employs the same lethal injection drug cocktail for its executions that is currently under dispute in several other states.
Please write to Gov. Tim Kaine on behalf of Dexter Lee Vinson!
