The US state of Virginia has abolished the death penalty. It is the 23rd state to drop the sentence and the first in the conservative south of the US. Virginia was the second most executed state after Texas, 113 since 1976.
Democratic Governor Northam visited the state execution room before signing the new law. Near the electric chair (‘Old Sparky’ was still used in 2013) and the stretcher where lethal injections were given, he explained why he is opposed to the death penalty.
“It all boils down to one question: Can the death penalty be fair?” He wondered aloud. “Is the punishment imposed without regard to persons? And have we always been right? Has every person punished indeed committed the crime? We know that is not the case with the death penalty.”
Northam recalled that in the past death row prisoners were on for years death row were still exonerated, sometimes just days before their execution. He also pointed out that those who are poor, black, or mentally ill are more likely to receive a death sentence: 79 percent of the 377 people killed following death sentences in Virginia in the 20th century were black.
Lifetime
Virginia is where capital punishment was first carried out in the American colonies: in 1608, a Jamestown colony executive was shot for treason.
The last time the state executed someone was in 2017. It involved an armed robber who shot and killed a police officer and a security guard during an attempt to escape. The proposal to uphold the ultimate penalty for such shocking cases was rejected by the Democratic majority in the state congress.
In Virginia, two more men were on death row, a cop’s murderer and a man who killed his ex, her two children, and her brother. Their sentences are commuted to life without the possibility of parole.
In 16 years, eleven states have now abolished the death penalty, the last was Colorado in 2020. Because there are also three states with a moratorium on the death penalty, death sentences are now no longer carried out in a majority of US states.
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