Inmate asks Sanford for clemency

COLUMBIA - An inmate scheduled to die Friday by lethal injection for killing an Aiken County convenience store clerk is asking the governor to spare his life.

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Lawyers for Jerry McWee want Gov. Mark Sanford to convert Mr. McWee's death sentence to life without parole because they say his co-defendant struck a plea bargain that might have kept him from the death chamber.

Mr. McWee, 51, also has been a model prisoner during his 10 years on death row, committing one minor infraction of having more than $25 in an account inmates use to buy personal items, according to the clemency petition filed Monday.

But Mr. McWee faces an uphill fight. No South Carolina governor has reduced a death sentence to life in prison since the death penalty was reinstated nearly 30 years ago. Mr. McWee will be the 30th inmate sent to the death chamber during that time.

Mr. Sanford has refused one clemency petition since taking office, allowing David Clayton Hill to be put to death March 19. His spokesman, Will Folks, said he isn't sure whether the governor is aware that none of his predecessors has spared an inmate's life.

"I don't think he looks at what other people have done or what the statistics are," Mr. Folks said. "I think he looks at each individual case and makes a decision based on its merit."

Mr. McWee's only other hope is a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the jury in his trial should have known he would have been 71 years old before he became eligible for parole. The state Supreme Court denied a similar appeal last month on a 3-2 vote.

--From the Wednesday, April 14, 2004 online edition of the Augusta Chronicle