Whitley v. Commonwealth

In a bifurcated trial of an indictment under Code § 18.2-31(d), a jury convicted Richard L. Whitley of capital murder in the commission of robbery while armed with a deadly weapon and fixed his punishment at death. The trial court confirmed the conviction, considered the probation report, and imposed the sentence fixed by the jury. We have consolidated Whitley’s statutory right of sentence review with his appeal from the conviction and accorded the case priority on our docket.

The evidence leaves no doubt that Whitley killed Phebe Parsons, his next-door neighbor. The 63 year-old widow lived…