Convicted killer William Silva III, 23, was given a
life sentence Thursday by a jury swayed by his
pristine record.
Jurors deliberated Silva's punishment for less than an
hour, roughly the same time it took them to find him
guilty of first-degree murder.
In August 1993, Silva beat to death his
next-door-neighbor, lawyer Deborah Correge.
Prosecutors told jurors not to be influenced by the
fact Silva had never been arrested before or defense
arguments that killers with long criminal records had
been spared a date with the executioner's gurney.
But Assistant District Attorney Maurice Landrieu said
interviews with jurors after their deliberations
indicated they thought that Silva's clean record - he
had never been arrested before - made him deserving of
mercy.
In the months after Correge's slaying, Silva said he
was wracked with guilt, and he made confessions to a
friend and a priest before offering a separate
confession to police when he was arrested in May 1994.
During the penalty phase hearing Thursday before
District Judge Patrick Quinlan, Silva sat with his
chin against his chest, occasionally raising his head
to turn his eyes, red with tears, to his family.
Several family members took the stand and urged the
jury to give Silva a life sentence rather than death.
Among them was his father, William Silva Jr., a former
Fair Grounds jockey turned drug addict after a track
accident.
"I'm sorry, Billy, for making your life hell, " the
man said, crying as he addressed his son. Then,
turning to the jury, he said, "I beg you, spare his
life, please."
The mother of Silva's 5-year-old daughter told jurors
she didn't want to have to tell her child her father
was executed, and other family members and friends
testified that Silva never had displayed any violent
behavior before August 1993, when he killed Correge,
40, in her DeSoto Street home.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Smith said jurors should
carefully consider Silva's low IQ scores and broken
family when weighing sentencing options. He said he
had defended several clients more worthy of the death
penalty than Silva.
"Look at Billy, " he said, pointing to Silva slumped
at the defense table. "Are you telling me he's never
capable of a good act for the rest of his life?"
Assistant District Attorney Margaret Lagattuta told
jurors they should be swayed by the evidence, not any
fancy legal arguments.
"Look at these pictures, " she said, standing before a
bulletin board plastered with images of Correge's
bloody corpse.
"Is that this face?" she asked, holding a framed
portrait of Correge.
The survivors of Correge said they were not certain
they wanted Silva put to death, and said they are more
satisfied with the guilty verdict than any particular
punishment.
"We left that in the jury's hands, " said Pat Neal,
Correge's sister. "No punishment is going to be enough
to bring Deborah back."
