THE CLEMENCY PETITION - Imminent Execution Scheduled June 16, 1999.

Douglas Christopher Thomas requests that the Governor exercise his power of executive clemency and commute the death sentence that is scheduled to be carried out June 16, 1999.

This is appropriate due to the vast disparity in sentences between Chris and his co-defendant, Jessica Wiseman, despite the closeness of their respective culpability. By all accounts, the mastermind and the motivating force behind the crime for which Chris is scheduled to be executed was co-defendant, fourteen year-old Jessica Wiseman. As noted by the federal district court judge who reviewed the evidence in this case, “The record strongly supports the conclusion that it was Jessica Wiseman who wanted her parents killed and who instigated Thomas to carry out her wishes.” Memo. Op., Thomas v. Netherland, No. 96-1502-A (E.D. Va. June 11, 1998). The Supreme Court of Virginia observed that, “[s]ome three months before the murders occurred, Jessica was heard to say that she ‘wished to get rid of [her parents].’” Thomas v. Commonwealth, 419 S.E.2d 606, 608 (Va. 1992). She enlisted Chris to carry out her plans. The three judges of the United States Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit found that Chris “murdered the Wisemans at the behest of their daughter, Jessica[.]” Thomas v. Taylor, 170 F.3d 466, 469 (4th Cir. 1999).

In spite of her controlling role in the crimes, a quirk of Virginia law – since corrected by the efforts of then-Attorney General Gilmore and others – Jessica and Chris could not be tried together as equal co-conspirators and could not be subjected to punishment proportionate to their relative culpability. As a result, Chris faces execution by the Commonwealth while Jessica is free from prison and any future punishment to rebuild her life and overcome the tragic mistakes she made as a juvenile. We ask that the Governor exercise his extraordinary executive power to commute Chris’ death sentence and to bring a proper balance into the punishments meted out for these crimes.

FACTS ABOUT THE CRIME

We do not attempt to minimize the tragedy wreaked by Chris’ and Jessica’s crimes. On November 10, 1990, James Baxter (“J.B.”) Wiseman and Kathy Wiseman, were murdered in their home in Middlesex County, Virginia. At about 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., the Wiseman’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Jessica, ran to Chris’ house, banged loudly on the door, and told Chris’ aunt, Brenda Marshall, that someone had shot her parents. Mrs. Marshall comforted Jessica and reported the crime to the police. Later that day, Chris took full responsibility for committing the murders.

Chris was transferred from juvenile court and tried as an adult. He was convicted of the capital murder of Kathy Wiseman as part of the same act in killing J.B. Wiseman. Chris plead guilty to killing Mr. Wiseman. He was sentenced to death for killing Mrs. Wiseman. Jessica, on the other hand, was adjudicated as a juvenile. Though there was no dispute about her degree of involvement in the crimes, she was sentenced to be held in custody only until she was no longer a juvenile. Once she reached the “adult” age of 21 years, she was assured that she would be released.

FACTS ABOUT DOUGLAS CHRISTOPHER THOMAS AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH CO-DEFENDANT, JESSICA WISEMAN

It is extremely important for the Governor to understand the relationship between Chris and Jessica, and why Chris was particularly susceptible to Jessica’s biddings.

Chris was born May 29, 1973 to Margaret Marshall Thomas and Robert Christopher Thomas. Chris’ dad visited the hospital on the day Chris was born. Since that day, he never saw Chris, and had no contact with him, until 1996 when he visited his son on death row. Chris’ mother’s “involvement” was sporadic at best. She gave him up for adoption when he was two (2) years old to his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Marshall. Chris lived with the Marshall’s in Middlesex County until 1985. His mother had very little contact with him during the years between 1975 and 1985, a time during which she struggled very much with problems of her own.

In addition to his grandparents, Chris developed an extremely close relationship with his favorite uncle, Mr. Winfred Childress, who also lived in Middlesex County. In the summer of 1985, when Chris was just 12 years old, he was struck by an almost unimaginable string of tragedies to him and his adoptive family. First, Uncle Winfred, the closest thing to a father or to a companion Chris had ever known, died suddenly in a work-related accident. Chris was heart-broken and felt abandoned. His aged grandparents could not replace Uncle Winfred to the 12-year-old boy. But things became worse. In August, Chris’ grandmother (adoptive mother) died. Chris was left with only his elderly grandfather (adoptive father). Then, as happens too often with older couples who have spent the majority of their lives with a single spouse, Chris’ grandfather followed his wife to the grave. He died in December of 1985.

In less than six months, the only family Chris ever knew was gone. Without anyone to look after him, Chris was forced to live with his biological mother in Chesterfield County, Virginia. As might be expected, just the move from the Northern Neck to Chesterfield County was a big adjustment for Chris. Living with his mother for the first time in his childhood also caused enormous stress for the young boy. The change was made especially difficult for Chris because his mother was living with her lesbian lover who insisted that her two (2) adolescent children also be allowed to live at the house. To make matters worse, Chris’ mother was having having serious and tense relationship problems with her live-in lesbian lover. However, as soon as Chris moved into the unwholesome, tense, and dysfunctional household of his mother and her lesbian lover, he began to exhibit behavior patterns and problems that were in sharp contrast with his previous record. For the first time, his academic performances became poor, and he was often truant from school. The problems became so acute that county school officials determined that Chris needed to be placed in a special class with other emotionally disturbed students where his particular problems could be addressed.

In another unfortunate turn, alcohol and drugs, including marijuana and LSD, found their way into Chris’ life, offering some comfort and escape from his internal confusion and tension, as well as the ever-growing problems at home and school. He also became involved in sporadic and petty property crimes. In mid-1989, these problems and anxieties became so pronounced that Chris attempted to take his own life. Doctors ordered that he be hospitalized to receive psychiatric treatment. He was subsequently placed in the Hanover County Learning Center for several weeks in 1989 where he was diagnosed with depression and problems with unresolved grief due to the death of his grandparents, and the lifestyle and type of home his mother provided in Chesterfield County.

In early 1990, counselors, proposed a hopeful solution to the severe problems Chris developed in Chesterfield County. This directed that he be returned to Middlesex County, Virginia, where he had prospered with his grandparents and uncle. It was arranged for him to live with his aunt and uncle, Brenda and Herbert Marshall. Despite the promising logic which motivated the move – to re-create the only positive home environment Chris ever knew – it never worked out. There was constant conflict in the Marshall home, and Herbert Marshall frequently threatened that he would make Chris move back to Chesterfield County with his mother. These threats, and Chris’ fear of having to return to his mother’s home, created a desperation in young Chris.

In 1990, when Chris learned that his mother was on her way from Chesterfield to Middlesex to pick him up, he fled to North Carolina with several other teenagers in a stolen car to avoid being sent back to live with his mother. Shortly thereafter, in the summer of 1990, Chris became involved in an intense emotional and sexual relationship with Jessica Wiseman. Jessica was fourteen (14) years old at the time. She was, by all accounts, precocious and in control of the relationship.

During the school year of 1990, the two students arranged to be left at home and essentially unsupervised during school hours. Jessica Wiseman’s parents, J.B. and Kathy Wiseman, did not approve of this relationship and forbade Chris and Jessica from seeing one another. Despite her parent’s disapproval, Jessica insisted on Chris seeing her on a daily basis, most often at her parents’ house while they were out. In the weeks and days prior to the murders, Mr. Wiseman’s disapproval escalated to threats against Chris, several times warning him to stay away from Jessica or Mr. Wiseman would kill him.

Jessica proposed to Chris that they kill her parents in order to be together. She insisted that Chris carry out this plan. Chris did not want to do this but he desperately did not want to lose Jessica. On the night of the crime, the two argued about whether they should carry out the plan. Jessica insisted that it be done. After two hours of Jessica’s threatening and cajoling, Chris gave in. Although his agreement with Jessica was wildly out of character for Chris, his personality and circumstances were especially susceptible to her coercion.

Chris functioned in the borderline range of intellectual functioning with particular deficits in the areas of knowledge, verbal expression, comprehension and social judgment. In those vital areas, Chris was in the mental retardation range. The psychologist selected by the trial court to examine Chris for the defense, Dr. Earle Williams, Ph.D., concluded that, at the time of the killing, Chris was extremely susceptible to the influence and suggestions of Jessica Wiseman due to his subnormal I.Q. and social functioning. Dr. Williams also concluded that at the time of the shootings, Chris acted under extreme mental and emotional disturbance.

The psychologist chosen by the Commonwealth’s Attorney, Dr. Henry Gwaltney, Ph.D., found the circumstances extremely mitigating. It has been his striking and unprecedented position – since the time of the trial until this day – that the evidence in this case does not justify a death sentence for Chris.

As mentioned above, Jessica was charged with murder for her role in her parents’ deaths. Jessica was born on July 26, 1976. She was fourteen years old at the time of her crimes. Her murder charge was not transferred to Circuit Court. She was tried in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court for Middlesex County, Virginia on June 26, 1991. She was convicted of both murders and was committed to the Virginia Department of Youth Corrections until her 21st birthday, which was July 26,1997. She has since been released from state custody, and is free and living in Virginia at this time.

On August 23, 1991, Jessica was called as a witness in the Petitioner’s case. She refused to testify, citing her right against self-incrimination. Despite the provisions of 19.2-270 of the Code of Virginia, the Court allowed Jessica to invoke her privilege against self-incrimination; and counsel for the Petitioner did not object.

REASONS WHY CLEMENCY IS APPROPRIATE

No one who was involved in this case – not the trial judge, the Commonwealth’s Attorney, the state’s mental health expert, the court-appointed mental health expert, or even the surviving victim’s family members – believe that the Commonwealth should go forward with Chris’ execution. None of these individuals is opposed to the death penalty as a matter of course. Each, however, believes or believed (the trial judge in this case passed away last Summer but had repeatedly made known his feelings about the outcome of the case), that Chris’ execution would do nothing more than highlight an unfortunate oversight in the legal technicalities governing this case at the time of trial.

Where these technicalities create a disparity of the magnitude created in this case – and counsel is aware of no other case on death row in Virginia which presents such disparity – the Governor’s intervention is appropriate to bring the punishments meted out in this case into balance. Jessica is immune from any action by the Governor or the courts. Only Chris’ case can be acted upon. Clemency for Chris is also appropriate due to the legal options that existed during his trial. At the time Chris was tried the prosecution did not have available the sentence for life without parole. The juvenile laws at the time did not allow the prosecutor to treat Ms. Wiseman as an adult and punish her appropriately for her involvment in the offense. The prosecutor had no option but to prosecute Ms. Wiseman as a juvenile.

The true nature of clemency is both mercy and an opportunity to prevent injustice. It would be an injustice to put Chris to death where the person who planned the crime and convinced Chris to participate in it goes free. Chris does not contend nor has he ever contended that he should not be punished severely for his acts, but putting him to death is simply too severe of a sanction when his involvement and sentence is compared to co-defendant, Jessica Wisemans’.

At a minimum, the Governor should grant Chris a reprieve for a time long enough to discern the responsibilities incumbent under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The United States Supreme Court Justices have asked the Clinton Administration for its views on the execution of juvenile offenders in light of an international treaty which forbids such executions. The U.S. has signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but filed an exception so that states could continue to execute juvenile offenders. The Nevada case of Domingues v. Nevada (No.98-8327) has challenged the legality of that reservation, and resolution of that case could provide the Governor powerful insight into the range obligations of the Commonwealth in Chris’ case.

III. CONCLUSION

Chris understands that the power to grant clemency is in the nature of mercy and fairness. The vast disparity between the sentence which Chris received and the sentence which his co-defendant received constitutes a compelling reason for the Governor to grant him mercy. Chris requests that he be granted clemency and his sentence commuted. Undersigned counsel request the opportunity to discuss the above information, and other information which might be helpful to the Governor in his decision, at your earliest convenience.

Respectfully Submitted, DOUGLAS CHRISTOPHER THOMAS

Z-Net (Amnesty International)

USA (Virginia) - Douglas Christopher Thomas, aged 25.

Douglas Christopher Thomas is scheduled to be executed in Virginia on 16 June 1999 for a murder committed when he was 17. International law forbids the death penalty for those under 18 at the time of the crime. Chris Thomas was convicted in 1991 of the 1990 murders of J.B. Wiseman and Kathy Wiseman, the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend Jessica Wiseman. He received a 65-year prison sentence for the murder of J.B. Wiseman, and was sentenced to death for the murder of Kathy Wiseman.

International standards ban the use of the death penalty against children, not to excuse their crimes, but in recognition of their immaturity and potential for change. By contrast, the US justice system has decided that Chris Thomas is beyond redemption, as it has with many other of its juvenile offenders.

Chris Thomas was born on 29 May 1973. His father's only contact with him was in hospital just after the birth, and in 1996 when he visited him on death row. When he was two, his mother moved away and he was adopted by his maternal grandparents. Apart from displaying a marked fear of being left alone, Chris Thomas is said to have been a happy child until he was 12, in 1985, when several of his family died in rapid succession. An uncle with whom he was particularly close was killed in an accident, and his grandparents (his adoptive parents) died shortly after.

Chris Thomas went to live with his mother. They were not close, and she did not respond to her son's insecurities as his grandparents had. He became involved in petty offending and drug abuse. He would often miss school and his grades plummeted. Psychological assessments of him during this period describe an isolated, seriously depressed teenager who was alienated from school and home. In January 1990 he went to live with his paternal uncle and aunt, who threatened to return him to his mother when his offending continued. In the summer of 1990 he met Jessica Wiseman and the two became involved in an intense sexual relationship. Her father's disapproval of this escalated to his threatening to kill Chris if he continued to see Jessica. The children then allegedly devised a plan to kill Jessica's parents, which culminated in the shooting of the adults in their bedroom on the night of 10 November 1990.

On 11 November, under police questioning without a lawyer or an adult present, while still under the effects of alcohol and drugs, and having slept for only two hours in the past 40, Chris Thomas confessed to both murders. He later partially retracted the confession, saying that he had not fired the fatal second shot at Kathy Wiseman. She had survived the first shot, come to Jessica's bedroom where the two children were, and been shot again. The possibility that Chris Thomas had not fired this second shot was not explored at trial. Jessica Wiseman was tried separately as a juvenile and was released in 1997 at the age of 21.

Chris Thomas's defence lawyers employed a psychologist to do an assessment of him for use during the sentencing phase of his trial. He found that Chris Thomas was a developmentally immature teenager, who in taking the full blame for the crime was trying to protect Jessica. However, the defence lawyers became worried that this psychologist would be an ineffective defence witness. On the eve of the sentencing hearing they approached the prosecution's psychological expert instead and asked him to testify on Chris Thomas's behalf, including testimony that Jessica Wiseman had been the motivating factor behind the boy's actions. The prosecution's expert agreed, but stressed that he could not present a complete or adequate case for mitigation. It is highly unusual for the same expert, in effect, to testify both for and against a defendant, given that the two require different preparation and presentation. The jury decided that there were no mitigating reasons to spare Chris Thomas's life, and on 21 November 1991 the judge upheld its recommendation for a death sentence.

Before the trial, a motion for a change of venue because of extensive local publicity on the case was denied. Shortly after the proceedings, a motion for mistrial brought by the defence lawyers after they received information that several jurors had known the two murder victims personally was also denied, as have been all Chris Thomas's subsequent appeals.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child both forbid the use of the death penalty against those under 18 at the time of the crime. This principle is now so widely accepted, and adhered to, that it has become a principle of customary international law, binding on countries no matter which international instruments they have or have not ratified.

Since 1990 there have been 19 known executions of juvenile offenders in six countries. Nine were carried out in Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, while the other 10, including the only four known in 1998 and 1999, have taken place in the USA. Most recently, Sean Sellers was executed in Oklahoma on 4 February 1999 for crimes committed at 16. In October 1998, Virginia executed Dwayne Wright for a crime committed at

APBNews Online

Man Executed for Killing Girlfriend's Parents." (January 11, 2000)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Douglas Christopher Thomas was executed by injection Monday night for killing his girlfriend's parents when he was 17. Thomas, 26, made no final statement. Thomas fatally shot James Baxter Wiseman and Kathy Wiseman as they slept in their Middlesex home Nov. 10, 1990. The Wisemans had been trying to end the relationship between Thomas and their daughter, who was also convicted in the killing. In a telephone interview last week, Thomas said it was unfair that he faced execution while his girlfriend, convicted as a juvenile for the same crime, was released years ago.

Called penalty 'a little extreme'

"What I did when I was 17 was wrong, and yes, I should be punished. But to pay the ultimate price while my co-defendant, who is just as guilty as I am, has been released to go on with a normal life ... is a little extreme." Jessica Wiseman was 14 when she urged Thomas to kill her parents. She was convicted of murder as a juvenile because she was too young to be tried as an adult and was released in 1997. Thomas' appeal was based on an international agreement that prohibits executing juveniles. It was signed by the United States, but the Senate has refused to ratify it.

APBNews Online

"Judge Me for What I Am Now; Teen Death Row Killers Want Second Chance," by Frank Green.

(Dec. 29, 1999) - RICHMOND, Va. (APBnews.com) -- If all goes as planned, Steve Edward Roach and Douglas Christopher Thomas will be dead in three weeks. Both men were convicted of murders committed when they were 17. According to Virginia law, they were convicted as adults, and sentenced to execution. Their appeals exhausted, Roach, now 23, and Thomas, 26, face the reality that this will be their last New Year's alive. In interviews on Virginia's death row, both men expressed remorse about their crimes, and both wish they had had some guidance when they were younger. Mostly, both wish they could live and be free. Lovers make a decision Thomas, set for a Jan. 10 execution, also said his killings were senseless. "It didn't need to happen," he says. Yet, at the time, Thomas made a calculated decision to kill for love. In 1990, the 17-year-old Thomas was dating Jessica Wiseman, 14. Her parents, Kathy J. Wiseman and James Baxter Wiseman II, wanted her to stop seeing Thomas, so the young lovers hatched a plan. Jessica let Thomas -- armed with a shotgun -- into the family's Piankatank Shores home through an open window on Nov. 10, 1990. Thomas confessed to police that he used the shotgun to kill both; James Wiseman was found dead in his bed, his wife was found in a hallway.

"We were both in love and we both wanted to be together," Thomas now says. "And, really, at that time, in our minds, that was the only way we could be together." Jessica, 14 at the time, had to be tried as a juvenile under Virginia law. She was convicted and held in a juvenile correctional center until she turned 21 in 1997 -- the maximum punishment allowed at the time. She is now free. Virginia law has since been changed permitting 14-year-olds to be tried as adults, but she would still have been too young to face the death penalty.

'I am now someone who is mature'

Thomas, however, was 17 at the time, old enough to be tried as an adult and sentenced to capital punishment. "I was naive to a lot of things when I was 17," he says. "I didn't really have any responsibility. I had the lay of the land. I could come and go as I pleased. I could have Jessica come and sleep over with me if I so desired. I really had no discipline." Now, 10 years after the crime, Thomas wishes he could have a second chance. "Judge me for what I am now," Thomas says. "I am now someone who is mature."

ABOLISH Archives (Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

January 10, 2000 - VIRGINIA: (juvenile execution)

Douglas Christopher Thomas was executed by injection Monday night for killing his girlfriend's parents when he was 17. Thomas, 26, made no final statement.

Thomas fatally shot James Baxter Wiseman and Kathy Wiseman as they slept in their Middlesex home on Nov. 10, 1990. The Wisemans had been trying to end the relationship between Thomas and their daughter, who was also convicted in the killing.

In a telephone interview last week, Thomas said it was unfair that he faced execution while his girlfriend, convicted as a juvenile for the same crime, was released years ago. "What I did when I was 17 was wrong, and yes I should be punished. But to pay the ultimate price while my co-defendant, who is just as guilty as I am, has been released to go on with a normal life ... is a little extreme."

Jessica Wiseman was 14 when she urged Thomas to kill her parents. She was convicted of murder as a juvenile because she was too young to be tried as an adult and was released in 1997. Thomas' appeal was based on an international agreement that prohibits executing juveniles. It was signed by the United States, but the Senate has refused to ratify it.

Thomas becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Virginia and the 74th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. Thomas also becomes the 3rd condemned prisoner to be put to death this year in the USA and the 601st overall since executions were resumed on Jan. 17, 1977.

Thomas v. Com., 419 S.E.2d 606 (Va. 1992) (Direct Appeal).

On January 23, 1991, Douglas Christopher Thomas, then seventeen years of age, appeared in juvenile court charged with first degree murder in the killing of James Baxter Wiseman, II, and with capital murder in the killing of Kathy J. Wiseman as a part of the same act or transaction of killing James Baxter Wiseman, II, Thomas was also charged with two offenses of using a firearm in the killing of the victims.

Thomas waived both a preliminary hearing and a transfer hearing. As a result, the matter was transferred to circuit court, where, on January 28, 1991, Thomas was indicted for the four offenses with which he had been charged in juvenile court. Trial on all four charges was set for May 29, 1991, and then continued to August 21 of the same year. Upon arraignment on August 21, Thomas entered pleas of guilty to the charges of first degree murder and use of a firearm in the killing of Mr. Wiseman and pleas of not guilty to the charges of capital murder and use of a firearm in the killing of Mrs. Wiseman. In the first phase of the trial, the jury convicted Thomas of capital murder and use of a firearm in the commission of the killing of Kathy Wiseman and fixed punishment on the weapons charge at four years in the penitentiary. In the second phase, the jury fixed Thomas's punishment for capital murder at death, based upon a finding of "vileness." Following receipt of the report of a probation officer, the trial court held a sentencing hearing and imposed the sentences fixed by the jury in the death of Mrs. Wiseman. At the same hearing, the court sentenced Thomas to sixty-five years' imprisonment for the first degree murder of Mr. Wiseman and two years' imprisonment for the use of a firearm in that killing. Thomas is before this Court for automatic review of his death sentence, and we have consolidated that review with the appeal of his capital murder conviction.

THE FACTS

The record shows that Thomas lived with his aunt and uncle, Brenda and Herbert Marshall, at Piankatank Shores in Middlesex County. Lanie Creech, Mrs. Marshall's twelve-year-old niece, also lived in the home. Thomas had been involved for some time in a "[v]ery intimate" relationship with fourteen-year-old Jessica Wiseman, who lived with her parents, "J.B." and Kathy Wiseman, several blocks from the Marshall residence. Jessica's parents were threatening to break up the relationship. Jessica had been wearing Thomas's class ring "for a long time," but Mrs. Wiseman made Jessica "give it back." Some three months before the murders occurred, Jessica was heard to say that she "wished to get rid of [her parents]."

Mr. and Mrs. Wiseman were murdered in the early morning hours of November 10, 1990, a Saturday. On the preceding Tuesday, Lanie Creech overheard a conversation between Thomas and Jessica in which the two discussed "[g]etting rid of her parents." Jessica asked Thomas "if he had enough bullets," and he replied in the affirmative. He asked Jessica "what time he should come over." She replied, "[m]idnight," and said that "if the window is down to go away ... it's off" but "if the window is up to come on in."

On Thursday evening, Lanie had a conversation with Thomas. She asked him why "he was so nervous." He replied that he had "to kill two people, and that he was real nervous." On Friday evening, just before midnight, Lanie observed Thomas putting on camouflage clothing and saw that he had a shotgun. He told Lanie the plan was that "after the shootings were over," he was to return home, "go in through his window and act like he was sleeping." Jessica would then come and "bang on the door."

Thomas and Lanie left the house together and walked to a nearby recreation area, where he smoked some "pot" and told Lanie he was "going over to Jessica's ... [t]o kill two people." With Lanie carrying the shotgun, the two walked to a point "a few hundred feet away from [Jessica's] house." Lanie then returned home. Later, Mrs. Marshall was awakened by someone "banging on the door." Lanie opened the door, and Jessica ran straight to Mrs. Marshall's bedroom, screaming that "someone had shot her father and that her mother was dead." Thomas was in his bedroom, and Mrs. Marshall asked him to "get dressed" and comfort Jessica while she called "the authorities."

Don F. Rhea, deputy sheriff of Middlesex County, was dispatched to the Wiseman home, and he arrived on the scene at 4:27 a.m. He entered through the unlocked front door and discovered the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Wiseman. Later in the day, Special Agent Larry A. Johnson of the Virginia State Police conducted two interviews with Thomas at the Marshall house. In the second interview, Thomas confessed to killing Mr. and Mrs. Wiseman.

ABOLISH Archives (Richmond Times Dispatch)

VIRGINIA:

Douglas Christopher Thomas, the 1st of 3 juvenile offenders scheduled to be executed in Virginia and Texas this month, died by injection last night for the 1990 slayings of his girlfriend's parents. Thomas, 26, was pronounced dead at 9:03 p.m., said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. It was the 1st execution in Virginia this year and the 74th since the death penalty was reimposed here in 1977. Traylor said Thomas made no last statement.

Thomas was convicted of capital murder for the slayings of Kathy J. Wiseman and James Baxter Wiseman II, both 33, in Middlesex County on Nov. 10, 1990. The couple were the parents of Thomas' girlfriend, Jessica Wiseman, then 14. Thomas, 17 at the time, and Jessica Wiseman plotted to kill her parents after they wanted her to stop seeing Thomas. Wiseman let Thomas into the family's Piankatank Shores rambler through an open window. "We were both in love and we both wanted to be together, and really, at that time, in our minds, that was the only way we could be together," Thomas told The Times-Dispatch in a death row interview last month.

Thomas admitted to authorities that he killed the couple with a shotgun. He was tried as an adult and sentenced to death. He later said that Wiseman killed her mother. Wiseman was convicted as a juvenile and given the maximum punishment allowed at the time: imprisonment in a youth center until she turned 21. She was released in 1997. Virginia law has since been changed to allow 14-year-olds to be tried as adults.

Last year, 2 women who had served time in juvenile facilities with Wiseman said that she admitted she had killed her mother. Wiseman, in a statement released through her lawyer, strongly denied any involvement. Yesterday, a 3rd woman came forward who said that while she and Wiseman were being held in Keller Hall in what was then called the Bon Air Learning Center, Wiseman admitted killing her mother. "Jessica Wiseman was complaining because she was being called a 'killer,' so a group session was held at Keller Hall to address her concerns," claimed the 3rd woman in an affidavit forwarded to Gov. Jim Gilmore's office yesterday. The woman, who only wanted to be identified publicly by her 1st name, Carli, is a 22-year-old inmate at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, where she is serving a 6-year sentence for attempted maiming and use of a firearm. "She stated that she still loved Chris Thomas and that they were planning to be married. She also told us, in no uncertain terms, that she had killed her own mother but that Chris had taken the rap for it because he loved her so much," Carli said.

Thomas' lawyers filed a clemency petition with Gilmore and met with his representatives last week. In an unusually long statement, the governor denied clemency last night, saying Thomas' responsibility under the law "is not diminished because of legal protections afforded his 14-year-old accomplice." "Indeed, in a society where the incidence of youth violence has increased, we must continue to demand complete accountability for such terrible crimes," Gilmore said.

Thomas' lawyers also filed an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court that contends an international treaty, the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, signed by the United States prohibits the execution of juvenile offenders. The lawyers said the United States signed the treaty but noted an exception to Article 6 that bars such executions. They said it is the position of the Thomas defense team that the United States can't object to part of the treaty and honor the rest of it. However, the justices turned down the appeal late yesterday.

Thomas' execution, along with the planned execution of another juvenile offender in Virginia on Thursday, has drawn much protest. Those writing to Gilmore urging clemency include the American Bar Association, the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, the European Union and the conservative Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville. But Dianne Clements, president of the pro-death penalty group Justice For All in Houston, said, "The United States does not execute juveniles. The United States does allow execution of individuals who committed their crime at 16."

Virginia has executed only one other juvenile offender since 1977, Dwayne Allen Wright, 26, on Oct. 14, 1998. Wright was 17 when he killed Saba Tekle on Oct. 13, 1989. Traylor said Thomas did not want the contents of his last meal released to the public. Thomas spent part of yesterday visiting with his mother and the clergy at the Greensville Correctional Center, where executions are conducted, Traylor said.