Virginia Death Row Shrinks to 2 as Prosecutor Drops Death Penalty Against Mark Lawlor

Virginia​’s death row shrank to just two pris­on­ers on March 12 as recent­ly elect­ed Fairfax County, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve T. Descano agreed to a deal to resen­tence for­mer death-row pris­on­er Mark Lawlor (pic­tured) to life with­out parole. Lawlor was sen­tenced to death in 2011 for the mur­der of Genevieve Orange. No one has been sen­tenced to death in Virginia since. 

A fed­er­al appeals court over­turned Lawlor’s death sen­tence in 2018, hold­ing that the tri­al judge had uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly pre­vent­ed the defense from pre­sent­ing expert tes­ti­mo­ny that Lawlor would not be dan­ger­ous in a prison set­ting. Former Commonwealth Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh, whom Descano defeat­ed in the 2019 Democratic pri­ma­ry elec­tion, had per­son­al­ly pros­e­cut­ed Lawlor and had argued that the death penal­ty was appro­pri­ate because Lawlor would pose a future dan­ger to soci­ety unless sen­tenced to death. He nev­er­the­less moved to bar the defense tes­ti­mo­ny and the tri­al court grant­ed his motion.

Morrogh had planned to repros­e­cute Lawlor, if re-elect­ed. But Descano, who ran on a plat­form of crim­i­nal jus­tice reform that includ­ed a pledge to ​“not seek the death penal­ty — peri­od, full stop,” agreed to resen­tence Lawlor to life. Descano called Lawlor’s life sen­tence ​“a notable out­come because it exem­pli­fies that our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem can seek jus­tice, find res­o­lu­tion, and keep our com­mu­ni­ty safe while adher­ing to our community’s values.” 

The resen­tenc­ing is emblem­at­ic of the decline in Virginia’s use of the death penal­ty. Though Virginia is sec­ond only to Texas in the total num­ber of exe­cu­tions per­formed since 1976 and has exe­cut­ed a high­er per­cent­age of its death-row pris­on­ers than any oth­er state, it has not imposed any new death sen­tences in near­ly nine years. At its peak in 1994, Virginia imposed 10 death sen­tences in a sin­gle year and had as many as 58 pris­on­ers on its death row in 1995. But death sen­tences plum­met­ed after Virginia estab­lished region­al cap­i­tal defend­er offices in 2004, falling from an aver­age of 5.8 new death sen­tences per year in the decade before the cap­i­tal defend­er offices opened to few­er than one per year since then.

Descano was one of four reform-mind­ed pros­e­cu­tors elect­ed in Virginia’s Washington, DC sub­urbs in 2019, all of whom said they would reduce or halt the use of the death penal­ty in their jurisdictions.

At Lawlor’s tri­al, his defense pre­sent­ed mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence detail­ing his trau­mat­ic upbring­ing and drug and alco­hol addic­tion. Lawlor was beat­en and abused by his moth­er, and his sis­ter was raped by their father. He was kicked out of his home at gun­point at age 16 when he attempt­ed to pro­tect his sis­ter from their abu­sive par­ents. He then began drink­ing and using drugs and was sent to prison at age 18 when he drove drunk and caused a crash that killed a friend. Lawlor’s lawyers argued to the jury that, on the day he killed Orange, he was so intox­i­cat­ed on crack cocaine and alco­hol that he could not form the intent to com­mit premeditated murder. 

As he was resen­tenced to life, Lawlor expressed remorse for his crime. ​“I just real­ly want to apol­o­gize to the fam­i­ly,” he said. ​“I know those words are kind of emp­ty. … What I did was a hor­ri­ble, hor­ri­ble thing. I took the life of a won­der­ful human being, and she’s gone, and I’m sor­ry for that. If the fam­i­ly ever wants to meet with me, talk to me, get clo­sure, I’m avail­able. And again, I’m very sorry.”