LIFE, NOT DEATH; GOVERNOR HEEDS POPE'S PLEA, STAYS EXECUTION.

Byline: Gustav Niebuhr The New York Times

After an extraordinary personal appeal from Pope John Paul II, Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, a supporter of capital punishment, commuted the death sentence of a convicted murderer Thursday to a sentence of life in prison without parole.

The governor said his decision was a one-time event and a tribute to the pope rather than ``a signal'' that he had changed his mind on the death penalty.

``I'll have to say I was moved by his concern for this prisoner,'' Carnahan said in an interview Thursday afternoon in Washington, D.C., shortly before he was to receive an award from a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In a statement, he added, ``I continue to support capital punishment.''

The governor's decision came one day after the pope concluded a brief pastoral visit to St. Louis, during which he preached a homily that included the strongest condemnation of the death penalty he has made on American soil.

After his final public event, a prayer service at St. Louis' Roman Catholic Cathedral, the pope approached Carnahan, a Southern Baptist, who was seated in a front pew, and, the governor said, ``asked me to show mercy'' to Darrell Mease, who was scheduled to be executed Feb. 10.

Carnahan, a 64-year-old Democrat serving his second term, has approved 26 executions since taking office in 1993. He said he had commuted one other death sentence, that of a prisoner he described as being ``very retarded.''

Asked whether Mease owed his life to a chance event, Carnahan said, ``You may wish to call it that. It is the coincidence of the pope being there, taking a personal interest in him, making a personal request that I chose to respond to.''

Officials at the U.S. Catholic Conference, which handles social policy for the American bishops, said they could think of no previous instance in which a direct appeal from a pontiff had persuaded an American governor to grant clemency to a Death Row inmate.

John Paul II issued an unsuccessful plea last year on behalf of a condemned Texas prisoner, Karla Fay Tucker, who had become a born-again Christian while in prison. In 1987, he spoke out on behalf of an Indiana woman, Paula Cooper, who was sentenced to die for a murder she committed when she was 15. Her sentence was later overturned by an Indiana court, and she is serving a life sentence for the crime.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, said it was ``certainly unusual'' for an elected official to respond favorably to a religious leader's request for clemency for a condemned prisoner. ``The clemencies themselves are rare, about one or two a year since the death penalty was restored in the United States,'' he said.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty constitutional in 1976, 510 prisoners have been put to death, with the greatest number of executions taking place in Texas, Virginia, Florida and Missouri, respectively, Dieter said.

Different reactions

Although Mease's lawyer, Laura Higgins Tyler, said she was ``ecstatic'' over Carnahan's decision, Jim Justice, who prosecuted the case, said he was disappointed by it, although he said he respected the governor's right to make it. Describing himself as a ``strong Christian,'' Justice said he believed all things happen for a reason. ``If the pope would've come two weeks earlier, it would have been the previous guy,'' he said, referring to another Death Row inmate who was executed. ``It just happened to be Darrell, and I guess there's a reason for that.''

Carnahan's decision brings a dramatic end to a controversy that had shadowed preparations for John Paul's two-day visit here.

Mease, 42, was convicted of the 1988 ambush slaying of a Taney County couple, Lloyd Lawrence, 69, and his wife, Frankie, 56, along with their disabled grandson, William, 19. Mease, who killed the trio with a 12-gauge shotgun as they rode all-terrain vehicles near their rural Taney County farmhouse, alleged that the senior Lawrence had been his former partner in a drug-manufacturing scheme.

Mease had been scheduled for execution Wednesday at 12:01 a.m., while the pope was in St. Louis. But shortly after setting that day last November, the Missouri Supreme Court, without explanation, rescheduled the execution for Feb. 10.

The governor's action drew strong praise from Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the organization that represents the American prelates. ``The Holy Father's plea for one man's life, someone who has been convicted of having done great evil, reflects the church's concern for all human life,'' Fiorenza, spiritual leader of the Galveston-Houston Diocese in Texas, said in a statement. ``We oppose the death penalty not just for what it does to those guilty of heinous crimes, but for what it does to all of us; it offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking life.''

Catholics disagree

Polls show, however, that most Catholics do not agree with this position, but rather support the death penalty by a roughly 2-1 margin. In this way, they do not differ much from other Americans on the issue.

Robert Pambianco, chief policy counselor at the Washington Legal Foundation, a public interest law and policy center that supports the death penalty, criticized Carnahan's decision because of the nature of Mease's crime. ``It's exactly the sort of crime that the death penalty was intended for,'' Pambianco said. In granting clemency, he added, Carnahan was ``undermining the death penalty's deterrent role, because he's weakening the consistency of the punishment.''

The pope's intervention on behalf of Mease unfolded rapidly Wednesday.

During a morning Mass attended by an estimated 100,000 people, he called on Catholics to be ``unconditionally pro-life,'' a stance in which he included opposition to the death penalty. ``Modern society has the means of protecting itself without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform,'' the pope said. He called for ``a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.''

After the Mass, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, who was traveling with the pope, invited Carnahan to an afternoon meeting at the residence of St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali. ``The governor was asked to come to my residence, precisely to discuss this case, and he very graciously agreed,'' said Rigali, who also attended, along with Joaquin Navarro Valls, the pope's chief spokesman. Carnahan was accompanied by Joe Bednar, his chief legal counsel, and Angie Heffner, another state legal counsel. Rigali said the meeting lasted 20 minutes.

Later, Carnahan attended the interfaith prayer service with his wife, Jean, sharing a front pew with Vice President Al Gore Jr. and Tipper Gore. The service ended about 6 p.m., after which the pope stepped away from the altar and came forward, blessing some children, speaking to local religious leaders, then greeting Gore. ``And then he stopped and talked to me and asked me to show mercy to Mease,'' Carnahan said.

``This was an unusual circumstance, having a papal visit in St. Louis,'' Carnahan said. ``It was a very high and emotional event in itself. And the pope, during his time there, to show particular interest in this individual, to seek me out to discuss that, through his secretary of state and then personally, moved me very greatly.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Pope John Paul II greets Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan and his wife, Jean, at the airport prior to the pope's departure Wednesday from St. Louis. Vice President Al Gore is next to Carnahan.

J.B. Forbes/St. Louis Post-Dispatch

(2--Color) MEASE