Tuesday, September 1, 1998

BY FRANK GREEN
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer 

JARRATT -- Johnile L. Dubois was executed by injection last night at the Greensville Correctional Center for the 1991 capital murder of a convenience store clerk in Portsmouth. 

He was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m., said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Traylor said 11 members of the victim's family witnessed the execution. 

Traylor said Dubois' last words 

were: "I send love to my family and friends and everyone who knows me." 

Dubois, 31, is the father of nine children out of wedlock and was on parole at the time of the slaying. He was sentenced to death even though he pleaded guilty before a judge and cooperated in the cases against co-defendants. In exchange for his plea and assistance, Commonwealth's Attorney Martin Bullock did not argue for the death penalty. 

However, Portsmouth Circuit Judge Johnny E. Morrison decided that Dubois, a drug dealer, would continue to be a "danger to others by virtue of his way of life," and sentenced Dubois to death. 

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 7-2 Friday to turn down his request for a stay of execution. Yesterday afternoon, Gov. Jim Gilmore turned down his request for executive 

clemency. 

"Upon a thorough review of the petition for clemency, the numerous court decisions regarding this case, and the circumstances of this matter, I decline to intervene," said Gilmore. 

Dubois turned down a request for an interview last month, and his lawyers, Joseph Bowman and Joseph McCarthy, both of Alexandria, declined to comment on the unusual case. Morrison and Bullock also did not return calls about the case yesterday. 

Dubois was the only one armed of four people who robbed the In-A-Hurry store on Nov. 20, 1991. Dubois was 25 at the time, and his accomplices were all teen-agers. 

Philip C. Council, 39, who suffered from mental and neurological difficulties because of a car wreck, was one of three employees working at the store at the time of the robbery. 

Council did not open the register quickly enough for the robbers, who jumped the counter and began beating him. Dubois shot Council in the chest, opened the register and stole $400. 

According to court records, Dubois had already fathered, out of wedlock, nine children he did not support and earned $2,500 a month selling drugs. 

In addition, he had been convicted of grand larceny in 1987, assault in 1990 and possession of a firearm in 1990, and he was on parole when he shot Council. He had also previously been convicted of two probation violations, and two charges of robbery and attempted robbery against him were not prosecuted. 

In rejecting the clemency petition, Gilmore said: "Dubois admitted killing Mr. Council and pled guilty to capital murder. The record shows that at all times Dubois was apprised that he could be sentenced to death by the judge." 

Dubois requested a special last meal but did not want the menu released to the public, said Traylor. He was not visited by friends or family yesterday. 

Robert Lee, a lawyer with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, said Dubois' mother was critically ill and that most of his family lives in Rhode Island and Connecticut. However, Dubois met with his spiritual advisers yesterday, said Tammy Brown, a prison spokesman. 

Dubois' was the eighth execution in Virginia this year and 54th since the death penalty was allowed to resume by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. Only Texas, with 156 executions, has had more. 

There were four protesters against the death penalty in a field outside the prison while the execution took place.