Edmondson: Bloody pants not enough to delay execution

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A pair of bloody pants is not enough to delay the scheduled execution of convicted murderer Loyd Winfred Lafevers, said Attorney General Drew Edmondson. <br><br>Edmondson said Tuesday

Wednesday, March 1st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A pair of bloody pants is not enough to delay the scheduled execution of convicted murderer Loyd Winfred Lafevers, said Attorney General Drew Edmondson.

Edmondson said Tuesday that DNA tests showed the blood on the pants belonged to Randall Cannon, Lafevers' co-defendant in the 1985 murder of 84-year-old Addie Hawley.

Edmondson said the test's finding only proves the pants were at the murder scene, and nothing more. "Lafevers is guilty as sin and this test does not change that outcome," Edmondson said.

Edmondson said delaying Lafevers' March 9 execution because of the pants became an issue due to a new policy his office adopted this year.

Edmondson said the policy prevents the scheduling of an execution date if there is new forensic evidence that might prove the innocence of a condemned inmate. The bloody pants do not represent such evidence, Edmondson said.

"Our position is that it is totally irrelevant to the issue of factual innocence -- absolutely, totally irrelevant. It doesn't say who did what," Edmondson said.

The pants were found at Cannon's home, though Edmondson said he is not sure who was wearing the pants during the murder. DNA testing of the pants was originally requested by Lafevers' lawyer, but Edmondson said he was worried the results from those tests would not be completed in time for Lafevers' clemency hearing. The clemency hearing has already been pushed back to March 8 because of the testing.

Instead, Edmondson requested the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation do its own independent tests, which he said were completed Feb. 18. Edmondson said those tests showed the blood on the pants belonged to Cannon.

Edmondson said he expects "considerable controversy" about whether the blood on the pants should demand a new trial, but he stressed it should not.

Lafevers' defense attorney, Pat Ehlers, did not return a phone call.

Court records say Lafevers and Cannon kidnapped Hawley from her home on June 24, 1985, and put her in the trunk of her car. Records say she was driven to a remote area where she was raped, beaten, set afire and abandoned.

Rescuers found her alive, but she died a short time later. Lafevers and Cannon were initially tried and sentenced to death in a joint trial in 1985. But the state appeals court granted them new trials in 1993, saying the state court should have tried them separately.

In separate trials, the murder convictions for both men stood and they were given death sentences. Cannon remains on death row.

Evidence against the two included the testimony of Cannon's brother, Sam Cannon, and their friend, Ray Goolsby. Both claimed Lafevers told them that he and Cannon had murdered and burned Hawley. Goolsby also reported seeing singed hair on both of the defendants' arms.

A stripper testified that Lafevers later gave her rings that were shown to belong to Hawley.