In 1999, Paul Powell killed a 16 year old girl in the state of Virginia, but was only convicted of raping the girl's 14 year old sister when he was taken to trial. He was put into a long prison sentence. Thinking that he had somehow escaped the death penalty, Powell decided to brag about what he had actually done. Powell thought that because of the double jeopardy clause in the constitution, the state could not take him back to court for the same crime. This is true, but in the letter, Powell admitted to killing the 16 year old girl, a crime that he was not fully on trial for during the first go around. So the courts took a look at the entire case again (taking the new confession into account), and convicted Powell of rape and murder - he was thus sentence to death sometime in the near future. Powell appealed his case to the Supreme Court, because he thought that he was unjustly tried do to the double jeopardy clause of the Constitution. This is partly true, but the crime tried was partly different. For this reason the Supreme Court recently refused to hold a hearing for Powell's case. In this light, Powell now sits on death row, awaiting his turn for the lethal injection. The Court denied the appeal because of the fact that Powell's letter was basically a straightforward confession to guilt. After all, with the truth out in the public, it's hard for the courts to protect a lie. The truth must ultimately be heard if it is a truth. The link to the article is here.
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