Sara Rosner
Staff Writer
School of Law Dean Ken
Starr practices
arguments for a capital
punishment pro bono
case. (Photo by
Graham Shea/ Assistant
Photo Editor)
Although Ken Starr has left his days of presidential investigation behind, the current dean of Pepperdine’s Law School is still stirring up controversy in the public eye. Thursday, Jan. 27, Starr practiced his arguments in front of a moot court at the Law School to defend the life of a man who has been sentenced to capital punishment.
Law students in the audience behaved as mock judges and aggressively questioned several points in Starr’s argument. Christina Doyle, a law student who observed the proceedings was impressed with Starr’s presentation.
“I think he will be successful,” Doyle said. “He laid out his arguments clearly and also laid out some very persuasive points.”
Starr, a former appeals court judge who is employed as counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, was also happy with the students’ performance.
“I always find it helpful in the overall preparation to examine the briefs to the court,” Starr said. “I think the students were marvelous.”
Starr, who also teaches a Constitutional law course, took the capital case pro bono about a year ago and is on leave this week to argue in front of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia. If the Court of Appeals finds merit in Starr’s argument, the case will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. As a former Solicitor General of the United States, Starr has argued 25 cases before the Supreme Court.
The defendant, 35-year-old Robin Lovitt of Virginia, was charged in 1998 with stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors while trying to rob a pool hall. The 35-year-old man was convicted of murder and robbery and sentenced to death in March 2000.
Although capital punishment sentences are often controversial, Starr said he believes that this particular case deserves reconsideration. In his arguments Starr cited several flaws, including the allowance of the testimony of a jailhouse informant of questionable motivation and credibility, the failure of Lovitt’s counsel to sufficiently explore his own painful and abusive past, and the county clerk’s erroneous destruction of evidence.
Due to the irreversible nature of the sentence, Starr explained to the moot court that these oversights and others could have made a huge difference in the minds of the jurors who originally heard the case.
“The question here is simply one of life and death,” Starr said.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 59 people were executed by civil authority in the United States last year and 3,741 were currently waiting on death row as of 2004. According to Virginia state law, first-degree murder is the only offense punishable by death and convicts may choose between lethal injection and electrocution. Lethal injection is used if the convict fails to choose. There are 27 inmates awaiting capital punishment in Virginia.
Although Starr said he believes in capital punishment, he also believes in using the sentence sparingly.
“I favor the death penalty, but I believe it must be reserved for the most heinous offenders,” Starr said. “I believe in the sanctity of life.”
02-03-2005