Condemned killer Paul Warner Powell won another reprieve yesterday, this time from the U.S. Supreme Court, which stayed his execution set for tonight in Virginia’s electric chair. Powell, 31, was sentenced to die for the Jan. 29, 1999, capital murder of Stacie Lynn Reed, 16, in her Manassas-area home. After he stabbed Stacie to death, Powell raped and attempted to kill her 14-year-old sister, Kristie, and left her for dead.

A decade ago, the murder of her older daughter and rape of her younger sent Lorraine Reed Whoberry down an uncertain path. Tomorrow, it will lead to “L Unit” at the Greensville Correctional Center, also known as the death house, where Paul Warner Powell is set to die in the electric chair for the 1999 capital murder of Stacie Lynn Reed, 16, of Prince William County.

Paul Warner Powell has chosen to die in the electric chair if he is executed as scheduled July 14 for the 1999 slaying of a 16-year-old girl. Condemned inmates in Virginia have been given a choice between electrocution and lethal injection since Jan. 1, 1995. Since then, 75 killers have been executed by injection and four have been electrocuted.

Paul Warner Powell, set to be executed July 14 for the 1999 slaying of a 16-year-old girl, has chosen electrocution as his means of death.

A divided federal appeals court panel has upheld the death sentence imposed on Paul Warner Powell, sent to death row a second time with the help of a letter he wrote to the prosecutor. Powell, 31, was first sentenced to death in 2000 for the 1999 slaying of Stacey Reed, 16, of Manassas. He also stabbed and raped her 14-year-old sister, Kristie, who survived. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Stacey during the commission of the rape of Kristie.