STAUNTON — A July 1 execution date has been set for a self-professed Nordic high priest who killed a fellow inmate at the Augusta Correctional Center.
Michael W. Lenz, 40, was sentenced to die for plunging a homemade knife into Brent Parker 68 times four years ago.
Lenz lost his latest round of appeals with the Virginia Supreme Court in early March. An Augusta County judge set the execution date Tuesday.
Lenz argued at his July 2000 trial that he feared Parker and killed him in self-defense.
Lenz, then serving a seven-year sentence for a string of burglaries in Prince William County, said he was the high priest of a Nordic cult called Asatru. Parker was trying to bully him out of the cult, Lenz testified.
Lenz and friend Jeffrey Remington, attacked Parker during an Asatru ceremony while surrounded by witnesses.
Remington committed suicide Feb. 23 on Death Row.