Gov. Easley, Victim's Family Members Respond As State Denies Hospice Request

Easley did not hold a clemency hearing for Edward Lemons before he denied the request. The governor said the case wasn't appropriate for a pardon or commutation.

"I have asked Secretary Beck to allow the dying death row inmate's family as much access as possible to him within the prison context," Easley said.

Officials said Lemons has not heard the news about the state denying his appeal because he was sick.

Attorneys for Lemons had asked that he receive clemencyor be released to a hospice in North Carolina or Michigan. Lemonsis an HIV-positive hemophiliac who suffers from cirrhosis,Hepatitis C and possibly liver cancer, the petition says.

The hemophilia makes him unable to receive treatment for theother illnesses, according to the first request. He is receivingtreatment at the hospital in Central Prison, the Raleighmaximum-security prison that houses death row.

Correction Secretary Theodis Beck had discretionary authority torelease Lemons. Beck consulted with the family of Lemons' murdervictims, who had opposed the release, before making his decision.

Bobby Stroud was one of two people Lemons murdered near Goldsboro. Hank Stroud, Bobby's brother, said if Lemons was allowed to leave the prison, he may harm someone else.

"We just told him how we felt about what the man did and it's kind of hard to turn a man out when he kills two people, whether he's sick or not," Stroud said. "He was sent there for the death penalty and he might not get that. He may die naturally, but that's what he was sent there for."

Lemons' family and lawyers are allowed bedside visits every twohours.

Lemons, 34, received two death sentences for the 1994 murders of Bobby Gene Stroud, 38, and Margaret Daniels Strickland, 34, both of Goldsboro. He also received an additional 160 years in prison for two counts of first degree kidnapping and two counts of robbery with a firearm.