Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Percy Walton (pic­tured) to life in prison with­out parole. Kaine can­celled the exe­cu­tion, sched­uled for 9pm on June 10, because ​“one can­not rea­son­ably con­clude that Walton is ful­ly aware of the pun­ish­ment he is about to suf­fer and why he is to suf­fer it”. The Governor found ​“that Walton’s clemen­cy peti­tion pre­sent­ed sig­nif­i­cant evi­dence that Walton had schiz­o­phre­nia, that such a men­tal ill­ness can cause seri­ous dete­ri­o­ra­tion of men­tal com­pe­tence, and that Walton’s men­tal state had dete­ri­o­rat­ed since 2003 such that there was more than a min­i­mal chance that Walton no longer knew why he was to be exe­cut­ed or was even aware of the final pun­ish­ment he was about to receive.”

After over two years of tests and obser­va­tion, the Governor found that ​“Walton dif­fers in fun­da­men­tal ways from oth­er death row offend­ers. He lives in a self-imposed state of iso­la­tion that includes vir­tu­al­ly no inter­est in receiv­ing or under­stand­ing infor­ma­tion.” The Governor added, ​“While he was not insane at the time of his crimes, there are strong indi­ca­tions that his men­tal ill­ness start­ed pri­or to the mur­ders.” He also cit­ed recent evi­dence of Walton’s pos­si­ble men­tal retar­da­tion. The Governor cit­ed the U.S. Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Ford v. Wainwright that ​“for­bids the exe­cu­tion of those who are unaware of the pun­ish­ment they are about to suf­fer and why they are to suffer it.” 

Since tak­ing office, Kaine has allowed five exe­cu­tions, and delayed anoth­er inmate’s briefly. Second only to Texas, Virginia has exe­cut­ed 99 peo­ple since the U.S. Supreme Court rein­stat­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1976.
(J. Markon, ​“Va. Governor Commutes Death Sentence”, Washington Post, June 10, 2008; Gov. Kaine’s Statement on the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Percy Lavar Walton, June 9, 2008). See Mental Illness and Clemency.

Citation Guide