Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 24

LOCAL STATE Haiti Ptm C4 Sarday. August 18, 2001 Roanoke honoring chugs away on museum locomotive photographer Va. inmate's claim of innocence probed 1 of life plus 50 years. "We're very excited and encouraged," said Steven D. Benjamin, one of the attorneys.

"We have an innocent client but were without the DNA evidence to prove it Now we have evidence that is pretty compelling." The Virginia attorney general's office contends that Cox got a fair trial and his conviction should stand. "Recent filings in the Stephen Hood case do not establish that Jeffrey Cox is innocent," said Randy Davis, spokesman for Attorney General Randolph A. Beales. "It is our understanding, from everything we know about the Hood and Cox cases, it is not the position of the prosecution in the Hood case that Mr Cox is innocent" Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Trono, who is handling the state court case as part of a joint federal-local task force, declined to comment Friday.

But he wrote in a motion that Hood's Jury should not be told of Cox's conviction because it is simply "a conclusion drawn from facts presented to a jury in 1991." ASSOOe3 P9SS ROANOKE The photographs of Q. Winston Link, who spent years following smoke-puffing steam locomotives, will be the centerpiece of a new museum dedicated to the vanishing era of American railroads. City officials announced plans Friday for a museum named in Link's memory It will include 280 of his black-and-white photographs, mostly from the Roanoke Valley where railroads were the economic backbone "Railroads have gotten us to this point," Mayor Ralph Smith said at a news conference. "You don't forget it" Link, who was raised in New York City, worked with Roanoke on designing the museum before his death in January at age 86. Link's son, W.

Conway Link, said his father wanted his work displayed in Roanoke. "He genuinely loved Virginia, in particular Roanoke and the southwestern section of the state," Link said in a written statement Self-taught and working on his own dime, Link came to Virginia in 1933 and began shooting the last Norfolk Western steam locomotives. He followed the trains for five years, producing 2,400 images of the hardscrabble, industrial life along the rails. Link, who was trained as a civil engineer, became recognized as a pioneer among photographers for his ability to picture speeding trains at night His AP photos Photographer O. Winston Link sits on a steam locomotive in Roanoke last year while being photographed for Vanity Fair magazine.

Along with photographs, the museum will house sound recordings and some motion picture footage of the trains Link documented. Norfolk Southern also has donated a restored locomotive the Number 1218 which routinely powered 150-car coal trains between Roanoke and Norfolk. Man convicted in 1991 of killing woman, 63 Te Associated Pess RICHMOND Federal authorities are investigating the claims of a convicted murderer who says he is innocent of the 1990 tilling of a Richmond woman. Jeffrey David Cox, now 33, has steadfastly disputed the accounts of two eyewitnesses who said he and another man abducted Dowse Cooper, 63, from her home on Aug. 31, 1990.

She was found stabbed to death in a park. This week, federal officials filed court documents that implicate two others in the slay-ing. In May, Stephen Hood was charged with Cooper's killing, and this week, prosecutors said in court papers that a witness told investigators that a man named William Madison, who has not been charged, said "he and Stephen Hood committed the Cooper murder and Jeffrey Cox was innocent" Cox's attorneys said they hope the new information will give them ammunition to persuade the Virginia Supreme Court to overturn his sentence Dinettes Bar Stools in Stock! Customized to fit any Decor wmmm CALL ntvirnsini? wttvcwH GLOUCESTER WILLIAMSBURG NEWPORT NEWS i I 1 64-S08 Z2I-0928 930-09ZS Everything S'z ttHL ri THE PENINSULA' DINEITES I I "SHOP THE SPECIALISTS" 838-2494 4122 W. Mercury Blvd. Hampton EXIT 263A Oft I-64 f-t tit.

win if if hAr warrMty wttfe ATsA. east ta mil wmm 1 rn forSiimmer ITfe ST'TCfS 1 Since 1977 Sine. 1977 WSuWBohn 874-8766 229-3722 This is photographer O.Winston Link's 1955 photograph "Coaling Locomotives, Shaffers Crossing, Roanoke, Va." Age could best be portrayed in the waning days of the last steam railroad in America," he said. The $8.8 million O. Winston Link Museum will be housed in a 96-year-old Norfolk Western passenger station in downtown Roanoke.

It is scheduled to open in 2003. 4 eat, r. Visit ALLTEL at one of these locations: Virginia Beach 5 Columbus Center (757)687-3192 Estates 1 Jewelry II 1 Diamonds fir Collectibles i Tilsted Since 1945 f) 10178 Warwick Blvd. jH NN 75i pggg3ggflf Lynnhaven 701 1650 synchronized flash system could capture them as if they were standing still, using hundreds of large flash bulbs and miles of cable that sometimes took days to set up. D.

Kent Chrisman, executive director of the History Museum Historical Society of Western Virginia, said Link's efforts recorded a region that had been transformed by steam power at a time when its economic base was changing. "It took a New Yorker to realize just how dramatic the coming change would be to realize that this vanishing Industrial I CSf Qccftssto tote 17 Hidenwood Shopping Ctr. Newport News 599020 Mon-Sat 10-5 SS: btate: Zip: ed By: Work jGross Pay: Sign STAR heating air conditioning 723-7827723sir) Reasonable rales oa OIL GAS BOILERS HEAT PtMPS AC IMTS 100 FINANCING AVAILABLE Armstrong FREE S-Vaar PartatLabor New InstaUationa mm SMI i mwmmwm Why walk or take the bus when you can ride FAX TO: 59M210 For Credit QuaHfications 1 Name: 1 Address: City: jBirthdate: Employ Home Phone: 'Time on Job: Mall Lyr)3ven Pkwy. (757)431-0452 Genera! B00B1 Blvd. (757)721-5693 1 800 Norfolk MacArthur Center Mall (757)627-4881 Chesapeake Crossways Shopping Center 836 Eden Way North (757)366-8914 Kiln Creek Shopping Center For Business Sales 2lOArthurWay and Promotions, Shop 4 ca (757) 687-3113 (757)327-1050 Shop At Participating Williamsburg Wal-Mart Stores 6522 Richmond Rd.

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