NEW VOICES: Former Virginia Executioner Calls for End of Death Penalty

Jerry Givens spent 17 years as the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer in charge of Virginia​’s elec­tro­cu­tions. During his tenure, he car­ried out 62 exe­cu­tions. He now strong­ly oppos­es the death penalty. 

The thought that he might exe­cute an inno­cent per­son was a major fac­tor in Givens’ change of heart. ​“The only thing I can do is pray to God to for­give me if I did,” he said. ​“But I do know this — I will nev­er do it again.” 

The pend­ing exe­cu­tion of Earl Washington, Jr. had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on Givens. Washington, with an IQ of 69, con­fessed to the 1982 rape and mur­der of a woman in Culpeper, Virginia. Many years lat­er, DNA tests pro­vid­ed com­pelling evi­dence that Washington was not the killer, and he was eventually pardoned. 

Givens remarked, ​“If I exe­cute an inno­cent per­son, I’m no bet­ter than the peo­ple on death row.” 

The risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son is also erod­ing pub­lic con­fi­dence in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Virginia has changed from a state that had 13 exe­cu­tions in one year to hav­ing only 1 exe­cu­tion in two years, and less than 1 death sen­tence per year in the last five.