Carlton Pope was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder of Cynthia Gray
According to court documents Cynthia Gray and her sister gave Carlton Pope a ride home. Once he was home Pope would pull out a gun and shoot both women before robbing them. Cynthia Gray would die from her injuries
Carlton Pope would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Carlton Pope would be executed by lethal injection on August 19 1997
Carlton Pope Photos
Carlton Pope Case
A man convicted of robbing and killing a Portsmouth, Va., woman three months after being paroled was executed tonight after losing a final plea for clemency.
Carlton Jerome Pope was put to death by injection at the Greensville Correctional Center about seven hours after Gov. George Allen refused to block the execution. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 7 to 2 to deny Pope’s request for an emergency stay and a formal appeal.
Pope was pronounced dead at 9:10 p.m.
In a final statement, Pope said: “I thank God for giving me peace. I love my mother. I thank God that Jesus Christ died for my sins.”
Pope’s attorney, John T. Parry, of Washington, said Pope became a Christian in prison and studied the Bible.
Pope, 35, was convicted of capital murder in 1986 for fatally shooting Cynthia Gray and stealing her purse. Gray’s sister, Marcie Ann Kirchheimer, was shot and wounded in the attack. Kirchheimer identified Pope as the attacker
Allen (R) said in a statement denying clemency, “I find no reason to overturn the decision rendered by the jury and upheld by the courts, and consequently I shall not intervene.”
Allen noted that the murder occurred three months after Pope was paroled after serving 2 1/2 years of a 10-year sentence for felonious assault and using a firearm in a felony.
“I must observe the instructive and sad fact that if Carlton Pope had not been released early on parole from his prior criminal convictions, Cynthia Gray would likely be alive today. . . . An important lesson ought to be easily grasped from this tragic story,” Allen wrote.
Pope’s attorneys argued in their clemency petition that there was no robbery the night of the killing. The robbery was the basis for prosecuting Pope for capital murder. They also contended that a key witness lied
n a losing appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May, Pope’s attorneys argued that Pope took Gray’s purse before the shooting and concealed it. They argued that meant Pope committed larceny, not robbery.
The three-judge panel ruled, however, that the theft and murder were part of the same crime.
“The taking of property and the killing of Cynthia were so closely related in time, place, and causal connection that they met Virginia’s definition of common criminal enterprise,” Judge John D. Butzner Jr. wrote
