State And Federal Info
Executions in Virginia were carried out by hanging for 300 years, until the first electrocution in 1908. The last execution by hanging occurred on April 9, 1909.
“DC sniper”: John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were both tried in Virginia for a series of shootings in October 2002. Although the crimes occurred in Maryland and Washington, DC, as well as Virginia, the first trials were held in Virginia, in part, because Virginia allowed the execution of juveniles. Malvo was 17 at the time of the crimes. Muhammad was executed on November 10, 2009. Malvo is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Daryl Atkins was sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of Eric Nesbitt. Atkins appealed his sentence, claiming that his intellectual disability made him ineligible for execution. Atkins’ appeal was heard by the Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), and the Court held that the execution of “mentally retarded” defendants is unconstitutional. At a subsequent hearing to determine whether Atkins was eligible for the death penalty, the jury credited controversial prosecution evidence and rejected Atkins’ claim of intellectual disability. However, after it was disclosed that evidence had been improperly withheld from the defense in the case, the prosecution agreed to withdraw the death penalty and Atkins was resentenced to life without parole.
Earl Washington was pardoned in 2000 after DNA evidence excluded him as a perpetrator in the rape and murder for which he had been sentenced to death. Washington is intellectually disabled, and had been coerced into confessing to the crime.
The first execution in what is now the United States took place in Virginia. Captain George Kendall was executed in the Jamestown colony in 1608 for spying for Spain.
Virginia has executed more people in its history than any other state.
On February 2, 1951, 5 inmates were executed, the largest number of executions carried out on a single day in Virginia.
Sentencing Alternatives
Mar 18, 2020
Virginia’s death row shrank to just two prisoners on March 12 as recently elected Fairfax County, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve T. Descano agree…
Recent Legislative Activity
Mar 08, 2020
Washington — A bill that would formally remove Washington’s judicially abolished death penalty from the state’s statute books has failed. SB 5339, which pa…
Recent Legislative Activity
Feb 28, 2020
Virginia — The House Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee voted 13 – 9 on February 25 to approve a bill that would make the identity of any entity that provides execution drugs public information.
Recent Legislative Activity
Feb 04, 2020
Calling the death penalty “a failed government program,” 21 current and former Virginia prosecutors have signed on to a letter to the commonwealth’s General Assembly urging the legislature to abolish capital punishment. The letter was signed by fo…
Mental Illness
Jan 31, 2020
In legislative votes 1,600 miles apart on January 30, 2020, state senates in Colorado and Virginia took historic steps toward abolishing or reforming their state death-penalty systems. After hours of emotio…
Victims' Families
Dec 02, 2019
Saying that “Virginia’s death penalty fails victims’ families,” 13 family members of Virginia homicide victims — including the daughter of a sheriff’s deputy whose assailant was executed — have called on Virginia legislators to abolish capital punishm…
New Voices
Nov 14, 2019
Reform prosecutors made further inroads into the administration of American law enforcement, sweeping county elections in Northern Virginia and gaining control of prosecutor’s offices in Pennsylvania and California. Progressive prosecutors rode a …
Lethal Injection
Sep 24, 2019
Federal lawsuits filed by coalitions of media organizations in two states highlight recent media efforts to vindicate the public’s right to witness executions in their entirety. On September 17, 2019, the
Death Row Overview
May 09, 2019
A federal appeals court has declared that Virginia for many years housed its death-row prisoners in unconstitutional conditions and has barred the state from reverting to its prior practices. On May 3, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourt…
Recent Legislative Activity
Feb 19, 2019
Bills to repeal and replace the death penalty with non-capital punishments have gained new traction across the United States in 2019 as a result of opposition to the death penalty among ideologically conservative legislators. That movement – buoye…
