LEGISLATION: Virginia Senate Upholds Governor’s Veto of Death Penalty Expansion

The Virginia Senate upheld Gov. Tim Kaine’s vetoes of pro­pos­als to expand cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment on April 8. The Senate vote fell short of the two-thirds need­ed to over­ride Gov. Kaine’s vetoes of the bills that would have extend­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to mur­der accom­plices who were not the actu­al killer and to those who kill on-duty fire mar­shals and aux­il­iary police offi­cers. This marks the third con­sec­u­tive year that Gov. Kaine has vetoed bills to expand cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to accom­plices. ​“Virginia, we exe­cute enough peo­ple. We don’t need to expand it,” explained Kaine.

(D. Potter, ​“Va. Senate upholds gov­er­nor’s death penal­ty vetoes,” The Examiner, April 8, 2009). See Recent Legislative Activity for oth­er state actions, includ­ing Georgia’s expand­ed use of life with­out parole, Maryland’s restric­tions on the death penal­ty, and many oth­er pro­posed leg­isla­tive changes.