McAuliffe commutes Ivan Teleguz's death sentence to life without parole

Teleguz, 38, was scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the capital murder of Stephanie Yvonne Sipe, the mother of their 23-month-old son. Sipe was stabbed to death in her Harrisonburg apartment. According to trial testimony, he hired two men to kill her for $2,000 and drove them from Pennsylvania, where Teleguz had moved.

On July 23, 2001, Sipe’s mother went to her daughter’s apartment because she had not heard from Sipe for two days. She found her daughter’s body and her grandson unharmed in a bathtub full of water.

Teleguz’s lawyers filed pardon and clemency requests with McAuliffe, arguing among other things that courts have never fully examined new evidence pointing to his innocence. They say two prosecution witnesses admitted “that they testified falsely in exchange for leniency in their own cases and have no reason to think Teleguz was involved in the murder-for-hire.”

McAuliffe denied the pardon request Thursday. He said Teleguz has had exhaustive appeals and litigation of the case. “Numerous state and federal judges have weighed the case and refused to grant relief to Mr. Teleguz. ... I believe that he is guilty,” the governor said.

However, McAuliffe said that “the sentencing phase of Mr. Teleguz’s trial was terribly flawed and unfair.” Evidence was introduced implicating Teleguz in another murder, he said.

During the sentencing phase of the trial, the prosecutor referenced it, arguing that Teleguz was so dangerous that he needed to be put to death.

“She said to the jury that he solves problems with arranging murders. He would do so from prison,” he said.

“We now know that no such murder ever occurred, much less with any involvement from Mr. Teleguz,” the governor said. “The jury should never have been given that information. It was false, plain and simple,” he said.

Marsha L. Garst, the commonwealth’s attorney for Rockingham County, has declined to comment on the case, noting that the issues have been tried and decided in local, state and federal courts.

McAuliffe also said there were references during the trial to Teleguz being a member of the Russian mob, while no evidence was introduced to support that. He said subsequent evidence showed the allegations had an impact on the jury when deliberating over punishment.

“I don’t know what the jury would have done had they not been given that information. I don’t. None of us do. But just raising that question, I cannot see this man put to death. He will spend the rest of his life in a jail cell,” McAuliffe said.

He added: “My heart aches for this family, the entire family who knew Stephanie Sipe, especially for their son who has grown up without knowing ... his parents. I know this decision will be a difficult one for all of them.”

The governor said he had spoken with Sipe’s father, mother and sister on Thursday, telling them of his decision. Asked by a reporter for their reaction, McAuliffe said: “They thanked me for calling.”

Sipe’s family could not be reached for comment. The Harrisonburg television station WHSV reported that Sipe’s sister, Jennifer Tilley, called WHSV last week and said: “There’s no doubt in my mind that he hired these people to kill my sister ... and it blows my mind, it really does, that he is still trying to fight and plead for his life.”

Elizabeth Peiffer, Teleguz’s lawyer with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, said in a statement that Teleguz, his family, friends and supporters are thankful that the governor granted clemency.

“We do not believe the death penalty is rightly imposed where, as here, it is based on recanted and false testimony. Governor McAuliffe correctly recognized that our system of justice cannot stand by and allow an execution to proceed when jurors were told to impose a death sentence based on false information,” she said.

Peiffer said Teleguz has maintained he had no involvement in the crime and that he will continue to work on proving it.

Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU, said, “We agree that the sentencing phase of this case was severely flawed, and Mr. Teleguz never should have been sentenced to death.”

In 2015, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted that a lower-court judge held an evidentiary hearing in 2013 concerning the recantations of two of the key prosecution witnesses. One recanter refused to testify, and the other did not appear. “In other words, neither of the recanters testified in support of their recantations,” said the appeals court.

The appeals court opinion noted: “Prosecutor Marsha Garst, whom (the recanters) accused of threatening them into testifying against Teleguz, appeared and testified that those accusations were false.”

Teleguz’s lawyers said one of the witnesses was deported, and the other was told he would lose his release date if he went back on his testimony.

Some religious leaders urged McAuliffe to grant clemency, and a Change.org petition in support of clemency has been signed by more than 114,000 people. Teleguz also has submitted written requests for clemency from thousands of supporters.

A joint statement from Virginia’s two Roman Catholic bishops, Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond and Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, said, “We welcome with gratitude Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s decision today to commute the death sentence of Ivan Teleguz. ... We continue to express deep sorrow and pray for all victims of violence and their loved ones.”

Del. Marcus B. Simon, D-Fairfax, who had urged clemency for Teleguz, praised McAuliffe’s decision. “Today the system worked as it was designed. The constitution of the commonwealth of Virginia grants the governor clemency powers for cases such as this, where obvious errors need to be corrected.”

Earlier this week, three former Virginia attorneys general — two of whom became opposed to the death penalty since leaving office — wrote to McAuliffe urging the death sentence be commuted, citing what they said was “unreliable investigative techniques, coercive tactics by both law enforcement and the prosecution, recantations of key trial witnesses, and consideration of false testimony in support of a death sentence.”

Virginia has executed 112 people since the death penalty was allowed to resume in 1976. Virginia governors have now commuted nine death sentences during the same period.