Virginia​’s death row pop­u­la­tion has sig­nif­i­cant­ly decreased from a peak of 57 inmates in 1995 to 8 present­ly. Only two inmates have been added to death row in near­ly five years. David Bruck (pic­tured), direc­tor of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse at Washington and Lee University School of Law, remarked, ​“The process has large­ly ground to a halt. That is a huge devel­op­ment.” He sug­gest­ed the decline in death sen­tences is due to a greater accep­tance of alter­na­tive pun­ish­ments and the real­iza­tion that mis­takes can be made in cap­i­tal con­vic­tions. Bruck said the DNA-based exon­er­a­tion and free­ing of Earl Washington, Jr., who was once nine days from exe­cu­tion, raised pub­lic aware­ness of the death penalty’s fal­li­bil­i­ty. Stephen Northup, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, agreed: ​“One of the strongest argu­ments against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is that we have an imper­fect sys­tem which will always be imper­fect. We’re going to make mis­takes, and the death penal­ty is an irrevocable punishment.”

Some death sen­tences have recent­ly been over­turned because of an inmate’s men­tal ill­ness, recant­ed eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, and evi­dence of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Virginia, which is sec­ond to Texas in terms of exe­cu­tions since 1976, had no exe­cu­tions and no death sen­tences in 2012.

(“Virginia’s death row pop­u­la­tion down to 8,” Associated Press in the Daily Progress, March 8, 2013). See Innocence and Sentencing.

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