State Supreme Court upholds Porter conviction

The state Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Thomas A. Porter, who was sentenced to death for the killing of Norfolk police Officer Stanley Reaves in October 2005.

Two justices dissented.

Porter had appealed his conviction on grounds that the trial judge made several errors. The justices also asked lawyers for both sides to argue on whether that judge, former Norfolk Circuit Judge Chuck Griffith, had jurisdiction to hear the case once he had granted a change of venue and moved the trial to Arlington.

Reaves was shot repeatedly as he investigated a complaint about a man with a gun in the Park Place neighborhood in Norfolk.

The majority opinion, written by Justice G. Steven Agee, said Porter never objected to jurisdiction during the trial and knew because of orders entered by Griffith that he would be hearing the case in Arlington. Justices also rejected Porter's arguments on the constitutionality of lethal injection, that jurors should have been permitted to consider the lesser charge of second-degree murder, and that the jury had been prejudiced against him by the proximity of deputies who provided courtroom security.

The dissenting opinions, written by Justices Barbara M. Keenan and Lawrence L. Koontz Jr., said that Griffith's failure to seek a designation that would permit him to hear the trial in the Arlington court rendered Porter's conviction and sentence void, and they would have granted Porter a new trial.

Koontz also wrote that the trial court should have permitted expert testimony about whether Porter would have posed "a continuing threat to society" if he were limited to the walls of prison under a life-without-parole sentence.

"I am compelled to warn that the various issues raised in this case may tend to exemplify certain aspects of the conduct of capital murder trials in this Commonwealth that slowly, but inexorably, will erode public confidence that the death penalty is being imposed in a fair and consistent manner," Koontz wrote.

Porter's lawyer, Joseph A. Migliozzi Jr., traveled to visit his client on death row on Friday to explain the court's rulings. He said the decision fell in line with the justices' rare reversal of death penalty cases. However, he said, the questions raised by the dissenting justices would bring "even greater scrutiny on the federal level," where Porter's appeals will go next.

Commonwealth's Attorney Jack Doyle, who led the prosecution against Porter, expressed satisfaction with the court's decision to uphold the conviction.

"From my vantage point, I'm certain the jury based their verdict and sentence on the evidence and the law," Doyle said.

Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com