He is notable for having become a serious legal scholar, helping mount litigation to explore constitutional rights of prisoners. Defense attorneys had mounted appeals to re-open his case in the late 1980s, based on what they said was new information, e.g. head and pubic hairs, sperm, finger prints, and bloody boot prints did not match to Giarratano. He lost state and federal appeals due to procedural rules that barred review of errors that were not objected to at the time of trial. The case attracted international attention as his execution date was scheduled in February 1991. Three days before the execution date, Governor Douglas Wilder commuted Giarratano's death sentence, with a pardon sentencing him to life imprisonment with a recommendation for new trial, and possibility of parole after 25 years (given the time already served, this would have made Giarratano eligible for parole in 13 years.) Mary Sue Terry, the state Attorney General, summarily dismissed the new trial recommendation, stating that "evidence of innocence is irrelevant under Virginia procedural rules."