NEW VOICES: After 36 Executions, Former Virginia Attorney General Now Opposes Death Penalty

During his tenure as Attorney General of Virginia from 1998 to 2001, that state executed 36 people. Now Mark Earley opposes the death penalty. The former Attorney General recently discussed his change of opinion in an article for the University of Richmond Law Review. He wrote, “If you believe that the government always ‘gets it right,’ never makes serious mistakes, and is never tainted with corruption, then you can be comfortable supporting the death penalty.” He said, “Overseeing a legal system that put so many to death with such efficiency eroded me,” but political concerns he had as Attorney General “walled off my doubts.” Since leaving office, Early said he has “come to the conclusion that the death penalty is based on a false utopian premise. That false premise is that we have had, do have, and will have 100% accuracy in death penalty convictions and executions.” He highlights two cases that raised significant concerns for him: the exoneration of Earl Washington, which took place during Earley’s tenure as Attorney General, and the recent ruling vacating the conviction of George Stinney, who was executed in South Carolina in 1944 at the age of 14. Earley concludes, “I can no longer support the imposition of a penalty so final in nature, yet so fraught with failures.”