Lawyers oppose Gray execution

(AP) Lawyers for death row inmate Ricky Gray will ask Gov. Terry McAuliffe to commute Gray’s sentence to life in prison.

The Virginian-Pilot reports  that Gray is scheduled to be executed Jan. 18 for the 2006 slaying of a Richmond family.

Attorneys Rob Lee and Jonathan Sheldon say they plan to argue to the governor that not enough evidence of Gray’s history as a victim of sexual abuse and his resulting drug abuse was presented in the sentencing phase of Gray’s 2006 trial.

According to affidavits, as a child Gray was repeatedly raped by his older brother and whipped by his father. They say he started using drugs at age 9 to block out his psychological pain.

Lee and Sheldon say society shouldn’t let Gray “be executed for the long-lasting and terrible consequences of the abuse that shaped his life.”