Clemency Granted to Would-Be 1000th Person Executed

From CNN.com:

Robin Lovitt's death sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole a little more than 24 hours before he was to be executed by injection Wednesday night for stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors during a 1998 pool-hall robbery.

In granting clemency, Gov. Mark R. Warner noted that evidence had been improperly destroyed after Lovitt's trial.

Lovitt would have been the 1000th person executed by the state since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. I guess our nation can put off this disturbing milestone a little bit longer.