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State & Federal

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 20th Century (by Race)

Decade

Total Executions

Murder

Rape

Attempted Rape

Armed Robbery

W

B

All

W

B

All

W

B

All

W

B

All

W

B

All

1900 – 1909

14

73

87

14

55*

69

0

9

9

0

9

9

0

0

0

1910 – 1919

11

69

80

11

47

58

0

12

12

0

6*

6

0

4*

4

1920 – 1929

4

41

45

4

31

35

0

6

6

0

4

4

0

0

0

1930 – 1939

5

23

28

5

19

24

0

3

3

0

0

0

0

1

1

1940 – 1949

7

28

35

7

19

26

0

8*

8

0

1

1

0

0

0

1950 – 1959

3

20

23

3

11

14

0

9

9

0

0

0

0

0

0

1960 – 1969

2

4

6

2

3

5

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1970 – 1979

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1980 – 1989

2

6

8

2

6

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1990 – 1999

31

32

65*

31

32

65*

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

TOTAL

79

296

377

79

223

304

0

48

48

0

20

20

0

5

5

*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.

Great Falls National Park. Photo by Kenneth England.

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


News & Developments


News

Jun 11, 2024

New Accusations of Prosecutorial Misconduct in Virginia Capital Case Emerge Three Years After State Abolishes Death Penalty

Prince William County,…

Read More

News

May 16, 2023

New Revelations Regarding the Virginia Execution Tapes Now Largely Removed from Public Viewing

Over a decade ago, four audio tapes and hun­dreds of exe­cu­tion doc­u­ments were donat­ed to the Library of the University of Virginia by a for­mer Virginia cor­rec­tion­al employ­ee. National Public Radio (NPR) aired excerpts from those long-hid­­den tapes in January 2023. Shortly there­after, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) then request­ed the return of all the mate­ri­als. NPR now reports that only two of the six box­es of material remain…

Read More

News

Mar 08, 2023

BOOKS: ​“Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain”

In Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain, (March 2023), author Russ Ford recounts the abus­es he wit­nessed as the head chap­lain of Virginia’s death row and the strong rela­tion­ships he formed with more than a dozen con­demned pris­on­ers. Through sto­ries, he describes the core of human dig­ni­ty he expe­ri­enced among death row pris­on­ers, as well as the treach­er­ous con­di­tions these indi­vid­u­als faced during…

Read More

News

Nov 07, 2022

Closing the Slaughterhouse: The Inside Story of Death Penalty Abolition in Virginia

Virginia made his­to­ry in 2021 when it became the first Southern state to abol­ish the death penal­ty. Closing the Slaughterhouse: The Inside Story of Death Penalty Abolition in Virginia tells the sto­ry of the commonwealth’s jour­ney from lead­ing exe­cu­tion­er to ground­break­ing abo­li­tion­ist state. Written by jour­nal­ist, author, and anti-death penal­ty advo­cate Dale Brumfield, the book explores Virginia’s his­to­ry surrounding capital…

Read More

News

Feb 24, 2022

Despite Ineffectiveness as Public-Safety Tool, Anti-Abolition Lawmakers Push Bills to Reinstate Death Penalty for Killings of Police Officers

Despite the absence of evi­dence that the death penal­ty pro­tects police or pro­motes pub­lic safe­ty, law­mak­ers in sev­er­al states that have abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment have intro­duced bills to rein­state cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for the murders of…

Read More
View More

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: No
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 113 state exe­cu­tions, 1 federal exeecution
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 1277
  • Current Death Row Population: 0
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 1
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 11
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): October 1, 1975
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1982
  • Date of Abolition: March 24, 2021
  • Location of Death Row: Sussex I State Prison, Waverly
  • Location of Executions: Greensville Correctional Facility, Jarratt
  • Capital: Richmond
  • Region: South
  • Population: 8,631,393*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 4.99
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Can a defen­dant get death for a felony in which s/​he was not respon­si­ble for the murder?: No
  • Method of Execution: N/​A
  • How is Sentence Determined?: N/​A
  • Clemency Process: Governor has sole author­i­ty to grant clemency
  • Governor: Glenn Youngkin
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

State-By-State

States With and Without the Death Penalty

DPI Fact Sheet

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty

More Information


Innocence Database

Execution Database

Death Penalty Census Database

Death Penalty Information Center
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