The num­ber of peo­ple sen­tenced to death in Virginia has plum­met­ed from 40 in the years 1998 – 2005 to only 6 from 2006 through April 2015. A recent study sug­gests that improve­ments in cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the state may have played a sig­nif­i­cant role in that dra­mat­ic change. In 2004, Virginia estab­lished four region­al cap­i­tal defend­er offices, which are com­plete­ly devot­ed to han­dling death penal­ty cas­es. The year before the defend­er offices opened, Virginia juries imposed 6 death sen­tences, but have not imposed more than 2 in any year since. This mir­rors the expe­ri­ence in oth­er juris­dic­tions in which defen­dants have been rep­re­sent­ed by insti­tu­tion­al cap­i­tal defend­ers. In addi­tion to bet­ter out­comes at tri­al, “[a] capa­ble and vig­or­ous defense no doubt accounts — at least in part — for the increased will­ing­ness of pros­e­cu­tors to resolve cap­i­tal cas­es short of death,” University of Virginia law pro­fes­sor John G. Douglass said in his study.

The rate of cap­i­tal indict­ments dropped from 34 per year from 1995 to 1999 to 22 per year from 2008 to 2013, but the per­cent­age of those cas­es that went to tri­al dropped even more, from 34% to 19%, sug­gest­ing that pros­e­cu­tors became more will­ing to nego­ti­ate pleas for less­er sen­tences. Doug Ramseur, a Virginia cap­i­tal defend­er, said the change also reflects, ​“recog­ni­tion that juries are giv­ing out the death sen­tence less,” because of the alter­na­tive of life with­out parole. Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said, ​“If you think you’re not going to be suc­cess­ful, it’s fool­ish to seek [the death penal­ty]. As a stew­ard of resources and what soci­ety wants, that comes into play. It’s an awful lot to drag the com­mu­ni­ty through, espe­cial­ly when it could go the other way.” 

(L. O’Dell, ​“Pace of Death Sentences, Executions Slows in Virginia,” Associated Press, May 3, 2015.) See Sentencing and Representation.

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