Pardons Board sets hearing to consider Nevius case

SANDRA CHEREB

Tuesday, March 6, 2001 | 3:33 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Gov. Kenny Guinn has called a special meeting of the Nevada Board of Pardons to consider clemency for Thomas Nevius, who was sentenced to die for the 1980 killing of a Las Vegas man.

The board, made up of Guinn, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and the seven Nevada Supreme Court justices, will consider Nevius' petition April 11, the governor's office confirmed Tuesday.

Guinn, who is chairman of the board, has sole discretion on whether to consider the request.

"He has grave concerns about Mr. Nevius' mental capacity and applying the death penalty to someone who is mentally deficient," said Jack Finn, the governor's spokesman.

David Roger, Clark County chief deputy district attorney, said his office will argue against the petition.

"Nineteen years ago, Thomas Nevius broke into the victim's home. He stole their belongings, he attempted to rape the victim's wife, and then he murdered the victim," Roger said.

"This case has gone through every court in the land. Now it's time for finality."

An international human rights group on Tuesday also called for a commutation of Nevius' death sentence. The urging by London-based Amnesty International came one day after Nevius' latest appeal was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a written statement, Amnesty International cited perceived flaws in the way Nevius' trial was handled - concerns that have also been raised by defense lawyers in appeals that have been rejected by various state and federal appellate courts over the years.

"This case raises profound questions of racial discrimination, culpability and the adequacy of the legal representation afforded to this mentally impaired man," the group's statement said.

"As such, it is a case that epitomizes why the USA's relentless resort to judicial killing is casting a deepening shadow over the reputation of a country that considers itself a champion of human rights."

Nevius, who is black, had escaped from a correctional halfway house in Pennsylvania, where he was finishing a six-year term for a second-degree murder conviction.

He was convicted in Las Vegas by an all-white jury in 1982 of the murder of David Kinnamon.

Nevius and three others, including his younger brother, broke into the victim's home in July 1980. Prosecutors said that as Nevius tried to rape Kinnamon's wife at gunpoint, Kinnamon came home from work and was shot to death.

Michael Pescetta, a federal public defender who has represented Nevius in the federal appeals, said jurors weren't told that Nevius suffered brain damage as a child and was mentally disabled with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old.

Pescetta will argue before the pardons board to have Nevius' sentence commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"We are not contending that he is innocent," Pescetta said. "The problem is because of his retardation, he certainly could not have been the ringleader as he was portrayed at trial.

"He was the only one of the four defendants who was sentenced to death."

The defense concedes Nevius entered the Kinnamon apartment with an intent to steal, but argues someone else fired the fatal shot and attempted to sexually assault Kinnamon's wife.

Jurors were never told of Nevius' mental condition. Six of them, including the jury foreman, have signed affidavits saying they would not have supported a death sentence if they had been aware of it.

Because of stringent rules and procedures in the appeals process, no court has ever considered Nevius' mental condition as potential cause for reducing his sentence or granting him a new penalty hearing, Pescetta said.

Previous appeals have claimed that Nevius' trial lawyer, who also handled his first round of appeals, was inexperienced and unqualified to handle a death penalty case.

The defense has also claimed that Clark County prosecutors improperly used challenges to remove black jurors from the panel and that the trial judge erred by giving flawed jury instructions regarding proof beyond a reasonable doubt.