Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • C7

Brandon Hedrick chose the electric chair, but his attorneys still say he is mentally retarded. BY KRISTEN GELINEAU THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHMOND Unless Gov. Timothy M. Kaine or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, a man convicted of raping and killing a young mother will today become the first person in the United States to die in the electric chair in more than two years.

Brandon Hedrick, 27, opted for electrocution rather than lethal injection, a decision that caught his own lawyers off- guard. know of no attorney Robert Lee said in an e-mail regarding the motives behind unusual choice. best I can venture is confusion or Inmates on death row have the option of choosing to die by injection or electrocution. If they decline to choose, the method defaults to injection. Hedrick was sentenced to death in 1998 for the slaying of 23-year-old Lisa Crider in Appomattox County.

Hedrick and his friend, Trevor Jones, had devised a plan to rob Crider, whom they spotted walking along a road in Lynchburg on the night of May 10, 1997. After bringing her back to apartment, they forced her at gunpoint into truck, where prosecutors said Hedrick raped and sodomized her. They later stopped the truck along a remote bank of the James River, where Hedrick delivered a fatal shotgun blast to face. Jones received a life sentence for his part in the crime. attorneys argue their client received inadequate representation during the trial, and may be mentally retarded.

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. In Virginia, those who score a 70 or below on an IQ test before they turn 18 are generally considered retarded. IQ was measured at 76 during his trial, but his attorneys argue a standard margin of error and the passage of time may mean his IQ is actually below 70. Hedrick declined through his attorney to be interviewed. But in a 2003 telephone interview with The Associated Press, he said being executed bring Crider back.

asked God to forgive me, asked the family (of my victim) to forgive he said. think I have a lot to offer by being alive even if they put me in the penitentiary for the rest of my The governor and his legal team continued to review clemency petition Wednesday, spokesman Kevin Hall said. The last person electrocuted in the U.S. was James Neil Tucker, who was executed in South Carolina in 2004. SARA SMITH VIRGINIA BEACH Sara Smith died July by Altmeyer Funeral Home.

VIRGINIA P.VOGEL COURTLAND Virginia Parker Vogel, widow of John Lloyd Tuesday, July memorial service will be held 4 p.m.Sunday at Wright Funeral Home. ARTHUR RAWLAND WHITE SR. MATHEWS Arthur Rawland White away 18,2006. He worked for S.G.Jones Son in 13 years and retired in 1999 after 20 years in the BP Dept.at the Anheuser-Busch Rawland was a devoted husband, and friend. He is survived by his Ann Alverson and sons, Chris White and Mobjack White of Jarrod White and White of and Tommy Tara Sturms of Tommy Childress and Port a lifelong friend, Johnston Kemp of The family will receive friends from 7 to 8:30 p.m.Thursday,July Foster- Faulkner Funeral Home and Cremation funeral service will be held at 2 p.m.Friday,July the funeral home chapel with burial to follow in St.Paul In lieu of family request memorial donations to be made in memory to the Mathews Volunteer Rescue to the Mathews Volunteer Fire 23109.

COMPILED BY MANDY MALONE OBITUARIES ContinuedfromC6 FUNERALS TTOODDAAYY Gladys p.m.Nelsen Funeral Home Chapel. AANNDDEERRSSOONN p.m.at New Beginnings Outreach Center C.O.G.I.C.,Newport News. Jean Marie a.m.at Bethel African American Episcopal in Hampton Memorial Gardens. Joseph p.m.at Funeral Conn. Christopher p.m.at R.

Hayden Smith Funeral Home. Ingrid p.m.at Windsor Gardens Cemetery and Mausoleum. Theodore P.Jr.:10 a.m.at Wright Funeral in Popular Spring Joy a.m.Clark Cemetery, Fox Adell a.m.at Friendship Anna a.m.at Triumph Pentecostal Church of News; interment in Greenlawn Memorial Park. Ruth a.m.at Peninsula Funeral in Greenlawn Memorial Park. Laura at St.John Baptist in Williamsburg Memorial Park.

Margaret a.m.at Langley AFB Chapel. Frances p.m.at Warwick United Methodist Church. a.m.at Waverly United Methodist in Waverly Cemetery. Loretta E.G.:1 p.m.at Antioch Baptist at Greenlawn Memorial Park. Edward p.m.at the Regimental Eustis.

Lucy p.m.at Charles City County. Glinner p.m.at St. Timothy Baptist interment in Carver Memorial Cemetery. Dorothy a.m.at Phoebus United Methodist Church, interment in Parklawn Memorial Park. James p.m.graveside at Hampton-Veterans Memorial Garden.

Mollie a.m.Roosevelt JJUULLYY 2211 Gordon a.m.at Liberty Baptist Church. Margaret p.m.at Berceuse Funeral and Cremation Traditions. Nellie at St.John Pentecostal Holiness in Oakland Cemetery. p.m.at Parklawn Izola p.m.at Little Elam Baptist in church cemetery. Grace p.m.at the Church of St.Therese.

a.m.at R.Hayden Smith Funeral in Parklawn Memorial Park. Isaac a.m.at Hogg Funeral Point; burial in Rosewell Memorial Garden Cemetery. Corine p.m.at T.E.Cooke- Overton Funeral in Langston Cemetery. Blanche p.m.at Crocker Funeral in Carver Memorial Cemetery. Joshua at First Baptist Church West-Munden, Chesapeake.

MMOOOORREE Charles a.m.Altmeyer Funeral in Peninsula Memorial Park. Margaret a.m.at Wright Funeral 2:30 p.m.in Parklawn Memorial Park. James a.m.at Waverly United Methodist in church cemetery. Edith a.m.at Durst Funeral in Frostburg Memorial Park. at World Victory Church Life in Hampton National Cemetery.

Ida a.m.at Woodland United Methodist Arthur Rawland p.m.at Foster-Faulkner Funeral Home, in St.Paul Cemetery, Susan. YELLOWMAGENTA CYAN BLACK SWF DAILY PRESSTHURSDAY, JULY 20, 2006 C7 4954 bulletsZone: 1st For home delivery of the Daily Press, please call visit dailypress.com/subscribe. Tomorrow miss news in the Front section. While there, be sure to also look for these features: Food for Thought, Feedback, Where the Newspaper Stands. Shaping the future of Fort Monroe The Front Section ROOFING JAWS CONTRACTING 872-8828 Free Estimate and References REPLACEMENTWINDOWS windows 174 MEMBER WhyPayMore? 1-888-721-6090 DawnSt.ClairPhillips MortgageConsultant GREAT RATES! ONE PLACE! CALL DAWN TODAY! 757-715-5733 XXOBITUARIES XX Did you know? Answeringquestions aboutthehistoryof Jamestown Sundaysin LocalNews XXSTATEXX Pastor Amos Purnell Bailey, author of Daily dies THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SPOTSYLVANIA The Rev.

Amos Purnell Bailey, writer of a syndicated column that featured a daily Bible verse, has died. The author of Daily died Sunday at the Spot- sylvania retirement home where he lived. He was 88. The Rev. Bailey, a retired Methodist minister, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and underwent surgery in March, said Rev.

stepson, Walter J. Sheffield of Fredericksburg. Daily began as a column in the Tokyo edition of Stars and Stripes in 1945, when the Rev. Bailey was an Army chaplain attached to Gen. Douglas staff.

At its peak, it was syndicated in about 100 newspapers, a number that has fallen to under 50. For 17 years, he also had a daily two-minute radio spot broadcast throughout the South- east. was game until the Sheffield told The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg. was in the hospital on July 4 and he had a remote control in one hand and was writing notes for his column with the One of the Rev. grandsons, the Rev.

Emmett Page of North Carolina, may continue the column, Sheffield said. A final decision been made. The Rev. Bailey, a native of Accomack County on Eastern Shore, studied at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland. He also earned a bachelor of divinity degree from Duke University Divinity School and a master of theology degree from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond.

The Rev. Bailey served at several churches across Virginia before enlisting in the Army in 1944. After World War II, he was a minister at several other churches and served as superintendent for the Richmond district of the Virginia Conference United Methodist Church. His first wife, Ruth Hill Bailey, died in 1992. Survivors in addition to his stepson include his wife, Betty Lou Sheffield Bailey; four daughters; two stepdaughters and a brother.

At its peak, the syndicated column started in 1945 was published in about 100 newspapers. execution set for today Condemned seeks stay over Bible use HEDRICK BY KRISTEN GELINEAU THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHMOND A man slated to be put to death next week for the slaying of a fellow inmate during a Nordic pagan ceremony asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to grant him a stay of execution. Michael Lenz, 42, is scheduled to die by injection July 27 at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt for the fatal stabbing of Brent Parker. In their petition to the high court, attorneys contend jurors in case admitted consulted a Bible during their sentencing deliberations, and that one juror said some on the jury pointed to passages in the Bible that supported the death penalty for killers.

attorneys argue the consultation of the Bible was an outside influence that denied Lenz the right to a fair and impartial trial. But the state contends Lenz is a cold-blooded killer who deserves to die. believe that issue is grounds to stop a fully justified death said J. Tucker Martin, spokesman for Attorney General Bob McDonnell. The 4th U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond on Monday denied request for a stay. Lenz was sentenced to death in 2000 for the slaying of 41-year- old Brent Parker, a fellow inmate at the Augusta Correctional Center. Lenz and another inmate, Jeffrey Remington, fatally stabbed Parker a combined 68 times with makeshift knives. The three inmates were followers of the Nordic neopagan religion Asatru, and belonged to a group known as the Ironwood Kindred. The group had gathered for a ceremony when Lenz and Remington attacked Parker.

Lenz testified that Parker had not been taking the religion seriously, and to protect the honor of the gods, Parker had to die. Remington was also sentenced to death, but committed suicide in 2004. Lenz has also filed a clemency petition with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

spokesman, Kevin Hall, said the governor and his legal team were still considering clemency request Wednesday. Lenz declined through his attorney, Jennifer Givens, to be interviewed. think doing as well as anyone could do under the Givens said. certainly hopes that either the Supreme Court or the governor takes measures to ensure that not executed next A lawyer for the man to be executed says the jury have been allowed to consult Scripture. LENZ Dale Alexander, left, mother of murder victim Lisa Crider, and brothers, Kyle Alexander, 27, center, and Shawn Alexander, 24, in Altavista.

killer, Brandon Hedrick, is slated for electrocution today. AP PHOTO.