Governor is killer's only hope

With no appeals filed, Elias Syriani's children seek commutation for the man who killed their mother

The children of Elias Syriani had to reconcile with their murdering father to reconnect with memories of their mother, whom he killed 15 years ago. Now, Gov. Mike Easley is their only hope of not losing that newfound connection to their mother.

Syriani, 67, is scheduled to be executed at 2 a.m. Friday at Raleigh's Central Prison. Syriani's appellate lawyers decided not to file any last-minute appeals seeking a stay from the courts. Therefore, Syriani's sole chance to escape lethal injection rests with Easley.

At the time of the killing, the couple lived in Charlotte with their four children, who are all asking that their father's death sentence be commuted. The governor met last week with the Syriani children -- Rose, Sarah, John and Janet, all now in their 20s.

Syriani was sentenced to death for stabbing his wife, Teresa, more than 25 times with a screwdriver. Their son, John, 10 years old at the time, witnessed the attack.

All of the children lived with the escalating domestic violence in the family's home before the killing. Last year, they all reconciled with their father and have since reveled in the memories of their mother that writing to and visiting with their father have restored.

"In this case, it is the kids' healing that's the issue," said Charlotte lawyer Russell Sizemore, who represents the four siblings. "It's the children of domestic violence saying, 'We have a chance to recover our lives; please don't stop that healing process.' "