Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Lawyers for a Virginia man set to die this week for killing his 79-year-old neighbor have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution.

Kent Jermaine Jackson, 26, is scheduled to die by lethal injection July 10 for the 2000 death of Beulah Mae Kaiser, who was sexually assaulted, beaten and stabbed in her Newport News home. Her cane was crammed into her mouth with such force that it knocked out most of her teeth and broke her jaw.

Jackson’s attorneys claim his trial lawyer failed him by not objecting when the prosecutor removed black potential jurors and then weighed the worth of Kaiser’s life against Jackson’s during sentencing. They also claim Jackson was never informed that he would face the death penalty.

Marvin D. Miller, one of Jackson’s attorneys, said it would be “a sad day for our system of justice’’ if he were put to death under those circumstances.

Kaiser’s body was found April 18, 2000, but the crime went unsolved for more than a year. DNA from a cigarette butt left in Kaiser’s apartment eventually led police to Jackson and Joseph Marquis Dorsett, who lived together in an apartment across the hall from Kaiser.

Jackson confessed to killing and robbing Kaiser and was sentenced to death in 2003.

Dorsett was convicted for his role and sentenced to 135 years in prison.

Miller argues that the courts have found that imposition of the death penalty must be based on reason, not emotion, bias or prejudice.

“There has to be a line, and there is a line, and that argument stepped over that line big time,’’ Miller said.

Miller also claims that Jackson’s Sixth Amendment right, which guarantees defendants notice of the charge against them so they can defend themselves, was violated because he was not informed that he could face death.

Virginia and 10 other states do not inform a defendant in court documents that he is charged with a death-eligible offense. In Virginia, the indictment references the state’s capital offense statute, but doesn’t clearly spell out the punishment, Miller said.

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