Virginia

History of the Death Penalty

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. 

In the mod­ern era of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, Virginia has exe­cut­ed a high­er per­cent­age of its death-row pris­on­ers than any oth­er state. That high per­cent­age was the com­bined prod­uct of poor defense rep­re­sen­ta­tion and the most dra­con­ian pro­ce­dur­al rules in the coun­try, under which defen­dants were denied any judi­cial review of legal claims that their lawyers failed to raise at the right time or in the right man­ner, even when through no fault of the defen­dant a lawyer missed a fil­ing dead­line. After the state began instruct­ing juries in the late 1990s that defen­dants sen­tenced to life impris­on­ment would nev­er be eli­gi­ble for parole, and then cre­at­ed region­al cap­i­tal defend­er offices in 2002 – 2003 to rep­re­sent most cap­i­tal defen­dants at tri­al, death sen­tences in the state sig­nif­i­cant­ly declined. No death sen­tences have been imposed by Virginia juries since 2011. 

On February 3, 2021, the Virginia state sen­ate vot­ed to abol­ish the com­mon­wealth’s death penal­ty. The state House of Delegates fol­lowed suit on February 5. The General Assembly must rec­on­cile lan­guage dif­fer­ences between the two pro­pos­als before a repeal bill can be sent to the Governor for his sig­na­ture. Gov. Ralph Northam has indi­cat­ed that he will sign the repeal bill. If that hap­pens, Virginia will become the first state of the for­mer Confederacy to abol­ish the death penalty. 

Famous Cases

“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.

Notable Exonerations

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.

Milestones in Abolition

Virginia is the first Southern state to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. On March 24, 2021, Governor Ralph Northam signed leg­is­la­tion to end the death penal­ty in Virginia and reduce the sen­tences of the com­mon­wealth’s two death-row pris­on­ers to life with­out parole. On February 3, the Virginia Senate had vot­ed along par­ty lines, 21 – 17, in favor of abol­ish­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Two days lat­er, three Republicans joined all but one Democrat in the Virginia House of Delegates in a 57 – 41 vote to repeal the death penalty.

Virginia ​“Firsts”

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.

Other Interesting Facts

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. The exe­cu­tions were part of the case of the ​“Martinsville 7,” sev­en African American men charged with hav­ing raped a white woman. Historians believe that least five of the men were inno­cent. After giv­ing coerced con­fes­sions, the men were con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death by all-white male juries in per­func­to­ry tri­als that last­ed less than one day each. The oth­er mem­bers of the Martinsville 7 were exe­cut­ed on February 5, 1951. 

The Martinsville 7 case illus­trates Virginia’s his­tor­i­cal­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry use of the death penal­ty. From 1900 until the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1977 for crimes in which no one was killed, Virginia exe­cut­ed 73 Black defen­dants for rape, attempt­ed, or armed rob­bery that did not result in death, while no White defen­dants were exe­cut­ed for those crimes. 

Virginia Executions in the 20^th Century (by Race)

*In the decade of the 1900s, one man list­ed under mur­der was exe­cut­ed as an acces­so­ry to mur­der. In the 1910s, one man list­ed under attempt­ed rape was exe­cut­ed for high­way rob­bery and attempt­ed rape and one list­ed under armed rob­bery was exe­cut­ed for high­way rob­bery. In the 1940s, one man list­ed under rape was exe­cut­ed for rape and rob­bery. In the 1990s, two Latino men were exe­cut­ed for murder.

Sources: For exe­cu­tions between 1900 and 1907 and exe­cu­tions by hang­ing in 1908 and 1909— Executions in the U.S. 1608 – 2002: The ESPY File, Executions by State. For oth­er exe­cu­tions between 1908 and 1972 — Bureau of Records, Virginia State Penitentiary, Electrocutions Performed at Virginia State Penitentiary (undat­ed), in Capital Punishment in Virginia, 58 Va. L. Rev. 97, 142 (1972). For exe­cu­tions between 1972 and 1999 — Death Penalty Information Center, Execution Database.

Resources

• Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
• American Bar Association Virginia Death Penalty Assessment Report
• Department of Corrections
• Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center
• Victims’ ser­vices
• Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Services Counsel
• Public defend­er’s office
  

Virginia Execution Totals Since 1976