Jul 22, 2003
Killer in Augusta case executed
BY JAMIE C. RUFF Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
JARRATT - Bobby Wayne Swisher was executed tonight, after a three-week delay, for the rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman in Augusta County six years ago.
Swisher, 27, died by injection at 9:05 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center, said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.
"I hope you all can find the same peace in Jesus Christ as I have," Swisher said in his last statement, according to Traylor.
Swisher, 27, abducted Dawn McNees Snyder on Feb. 5, 1997, as she was working late preparing for Valentine's Day at Enchanted Florist, a Stuarts Draft business she co-owned. Snyder's body was found later that month in a field within two miles of the shop.
Gov. Mark R. Warner did not make a statement today in response to Swisher's final petition for clemency last week.
"The July 1 statement had everything the governor was going to say about it," said Ellen Qualls, spokeswoman for Warner.
Swisher and his appeal attorneys, Anthony F. King and Steven D. Rosenfield, had hoped that Warner would intervene and grant a new sentencing hearing.
The governor delayed the execution, which had been set for July 1, until today to give Swisher a chance to ask the Virginia Supreme Court for a new sentencing. In his July 1 statement, Warner said the matter was best handled by the courts and that he would not intervene if the court rejected Swisher's request.
"Bobby Wayne Swisher committed a vile and reprehensible act - an act which I believe justifies the death penalty," the governor said.
Swisher's lawyers contended that the trial jury recommended the death penalty using a verdict form that the state Supreme Court, in a later case, found to be defective. The form did not clearly specify that a jury could impose a life sentence even if it found a crime vile enough or the defendant dangerous enough to warrant the death penalty.
Swisher's attorneys said the court "refused on procedural grounds to correct this admitted injustice." With the court refusing to act, the defense lawyers again turned to the governor, renewing their clemency request to him Friday.
Traylor said Swisher had no special requests for his last meal. He ate the same food as the rest of the prisoners: a hot dog and bun with mustard and onions, oven-browned potatoes, cole slaw and watermelon. Swisher visited yesterday with his mother and brother, attorneys and spiritual advisers.
At 8:30 p.m., three people stood outside the prison to protest Swisher's execution.
Charles Schrader of Charlottesville said it was the first time he had participated in such a protest. He said he wanted to be "a voice against what is happening."
Roy Lettieri of Franklin said he came to honor the work of Swisher's spiritual advisers, whom he knows. "Bobby is ready to go. He is going with a joyful heart," Lettieri said.
Francis Carlhian, who is from Belgium but lives in Charlottesville, said he was surprised there were so few protesters at the prison, noting that opposition to the death penalty is widespread in Europe.
"I was thinking a lot of people would come," said Carlhian, a housemate of Schrader. "A man is dying. It's crazy."
Swisher was convicted of capital murder in October 1997 and the jury recommended he be sentenced to death, a verdict that was imposed in February 1998 by Augusta Circuit Judge Thomas H. Wood.
During the trial, Swisher's lawyers did not dispute that he committed the crime, but they argued that Swisher should be spared because he was too high on drugs and alcohol to know what he was doing.
Swisher confessed to friends and investigators that he kidnapped and raped Snyder before cutting her throat. Swisher admitted that he pushed Snyder into the South River, but he panicked and ran when she started climbing out. Snyder's body was found 180 yards from the river.
In a telephone interview with The Times-Dispatch this month, Swisher said he was ready to die, if it came to that, because of a religious conversion about a year ago. He said he deeply regretted killing Snyder.
"I was just a wild child. I was out there having fun and partying. That was it," he said. "I was a stupid, narrow-minded kid and made bad choices with devastating results."
Snyder's mother, Sandi McNees of Stuarts Draft, said last month that she had come to peace with the killer of her only child, but that she believed, in accordance with the law, that Swisher should be executed. She said she intended to witness his execution.
"I vowed that I would see this thing through to the end, and this is the end of that part of Dawn's life," she said then. "And I feel that after the execution, Dawn - the victim - that part of her life will have ceased and I will have gained Dawn - the daughter - back."
Snyder, who was separated from her husband when she was killed, had a daughter who is now 9, McNees said. She was also an emergency-medical technician with the rescue squad and had helped to save lives, her mother said.
Jamie C. Ruff is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Staff writer Frank Green contributed to this report.
This story can be found at:
www.timesdispatch.com/news/localupdates/MGB9X56PGID.html
