Building upon our recent studies of radical addition pathways following excitation of the I-2 chromophore in the donor-acceptor complex of ethylene and I-2 (C2H4 center dot center dot center dot I-2), in this article, we extend our studies to examine photoinduced electron transfer. Thus, irradiation into the intense charge-transfer band of the complex (lambda(max) = 247 nm) gave rise to a band at 366 nm that is assigned to the bridged ethylene-I radical complex on the basis of our prior work. The formation of the radical complex is explained by a mechanism that involves rapid back electron transfer leading to I-I bond fission. Excitation into the charge-transfer band of the radical complex led to regeneration of the parent complex and the which confirms that the reaction proceeds ultimately by a radical addition formation of the final photoproduct, anti- and gauche-1,2-diiodoethane, mechanism. This finding is contrasted with our previous study of the C2H4 center dot center dot center dot Br-2 complex, where CT excitation led to only one product, anti-1,2-dibromoethane, a result explained by a single electron-transfer mechanism proceeding via a bridged bromonium ion intermediate. For the I-2 complex, the breakup of the photolytically generated I-2(-center dot) anion radical is apparently sufficiently slow to render it uncompetitive with back electron transfer. Finally, we report a detailed computational examination of the parent and radical complexes of both bromine and iodine, using high-level single- and multireference methods, which provide insight into the different behaviors of the charge-transfer states of the two radicals and the role of spin-orbit coupling.