Tuesday, 2-24-98---

Reginald Powell is down to his final appeal, a clemency request before

Gov. Mel Carnahan. But the attorney for the condemned killer believes

that, politics aside, the governor has an easy decision.

Courts from the circuit level through the U.S. Supreme Court have

refused to halt the execution. Powell's attorney, Bruce Livingston,

said Monday he won't file additional court appeals.

"We're waiting on the governor," Livingston said.

Powell was to be executed at one minute past midnight Wednesday at

the Potosi Correctional Center.

Carnahan was in Washington Monday for the National Governors Association

conference. Spokesman Chris Sifford said the governor was continuing to

review the case.

Given the fact that Powell and his original trial attorney were involved

in a sexual affair that even she says clouded her judgment, Carnahan's

decision should be an easy one, Livingston said.

"If politics were not an issue, I don't see how you could not grant

clemency," Livingston said. "I suppose there's always the issue of

appearing tough on crime. But on the facts of this case, I think it

would be an indictment of our society to execute this man."

Attorney General Jay Nixon disagrees. Nixon noted that the courts

were aware of the affair when they upheld the death penalty. He called

Powell's crime one of the most brutal in the state in the last 15 years.

Powell, now 29, was 18 in 1986 when he stomped on 2 intoxicated

brothers so hard he broke nearly all of the ribs of both men. Then he

stabbed them to death and robbed them of $3 and a pack of cigarettes.

In a taped confession, Powell seemed to show no remorse.

"You know, we'll say I had the last -- the last laugh," he said.

Powell doesn't deny the killings. At issue in the clemency request,

though, is the affair that developed between Powell, a borderline

mentally retarded man with a history of drug abuse, and Marianne

Marxkors, an educated attorney nearly twice his age.

Marxkors, now 45, has admitted that she and Powell first had sex in a

holding cell near a St. Louis courtroom soon after Powell was found

guilty of the killings. She told The Associated Press earlier this month

that she began falling in love with Powell before the encounter, and her

love for him affected her judgment in handling the case.

During the trial, prosecutors offered a plea bargain of life in prison

with a chance of parole after 50 years in exchange for a guilty plea.

Marxkors turned it down. She said she thought she could somehow get

Powell off on a manslaughter conviction.

Powell said he didn't think to question his lawyer's judgment.

"I did what she asked me to do because she was the lawyer," he said.

Given the evidence and the taped confession, Livingston called Marxkors'

decision "preposterous."

Marxkors now agrees.

The clemency request also questions why Marxkors refused to advise

Powell to testify at the penalty phase of the trial. She now says she

should have. But at the time, she feared his improved demeanor, aided

by a jail stay that got him off drugs, would hurt the defense claim that

he was mentally impaired at the time of the murders.

"I wish I could make it change, but I can't," she said.

Powell would not agree to an interview Monday, but Livingston described

his mood as "somber."

"He has seen so many people on death row leave, go to that room, and

not come back," Livingston said. "He's resigned -- he's trying to deal

with the thought of death and at the same time retain some hope."

(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)