THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996              TAG: 9601230243
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY AND ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITERS
JURORS SAY THEY WOULDN'T HAVE CHOSEN DEATH TWO SAY THEY WOULD HAVE
VOTED LIFE IN PRISON FOR RICHARD TOWNES HAD THEY KNOWN HE WOULDN'T
HAVE BEEN ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE.
Two days before the scheduled execution of Richard Townes Jr., two of
the jurors who sent him to death row for killing a convenience store
clerk in Virginia Beach said they would have sentenced him to life,
instead, if they had known he was not eligible for parole.
Townes, 45, convicted of the 1985 shooting death of Virginia Goebel,
is scheduled to die by lethal injection tonight at Greensville
Correctional Center in Jarratt, barring a court stay or clemency by
Gov. George F. Allen. Goebel, a 32-year-old mother of two, was killed
April 14, 1985, at the Gulf Majik Market on Indian River Road.
Investigators working on Townes' behalf recently reached 11 of the
dozen jurors in the 1986 trial. In affidavits signed Sunday, two
jurors said they would not have sentenced Townes to die if they had
known that, under Virginia law, he could not have been paroled. Eight
others declined to discuss the case. David P. Wadyka, a lawyer
representing Townes, said he did not know what the eleventh juror
said.
``I would not have sentenced Mr. Townes to death had I known that a
life sentence meant that he would have really served a life sentence
and not been eligible for parole,'' juror Ethel Keith said in an
affidavit. ``In fact, I do not believe any of the jurors would have
sentenced him to die under those circumstances.''
She also said that she and other jurors worried that Townes might one
day get out of prison, and they didn't want that to happen.
``I remember that none of the jurors wanted to sentence Mr. Townes to
death, but we felt we had to,'' she said.
A second juror, Margaret Belan, said that she remains troubled that
jurors were put in the position of second-guessing the meaning of a
life term in the Townes case.
During their deliberations, jurors asked the judge what a life term
meant, but at the time, the law prohibited him from answering their
question.
``I was bothered at the time of the trial that the judge would not
give us a meaningful answer to our question about parole,'' Belan
said. ``Had I known that Richard Townes would have received a literal
life sentence and would not have been eligible for parole, I would
have voted for a life sentence rather than the death penalty.''
At the time, Circuit Court Judge Austin E. Owen told the jury: ``The
question relating to parole eligibility is not a matter appropriate
for jury consideration. . . . I regret that I can't give you any more
answer than that.''
A decision on sentencing must be unanimous. If jurors cannot agree to
a sentence in a capital murder trial, the judge automatically imposes
a life term.
Wadyka, Townes' lawyer, has provided Allen with copies of the new
affidavits to support the clemency bid.
``These two jurors now say that they were misled or uninformed as to
Richard's parole status,'' Wadyka said Monday. ``Richard may be
executed (tonight) based on misinformation or lack of information.
That's sad if that happens.''
[cont]
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