Kenneth W. Starr, a former federal judge and U.S. Solicitor General, recently represented Virginia death row inmate Robin Lovitt before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Though he supports capital punishment, Starr stated that “the death penalty has to be administered with the utmost caution and reserved for the gravest offenses. This is not that kind of case. Robin Lovitt maintains his innocence, and evidence that might prove his innocence has been destroyed. I’m very distressed by that…. Society had better be absolutely certain before they put someone to death who is maintaining his innocence. I feel very passionately about that.”

He urged the judges to overturn Lovitt’s conviction because prosecutors failed to tell the defense that their own expert concluded that the scissors allegedly used by Lovitt could not have been the murder weapon. Starr argued that Lovitt’s rights were also violated when a courthouse clerk threw away all of the evidence before his appeals were complete. Starr, who does not specialize in criminal law and has never represented an inmate on death row, became involved in Lovitt’s case when his law firm took the case free of charge. (The Washington Post, February 2, 2005). See Innocence.