Virginia Legislators Poised to Attempt Death Penalty Repeal as Governor Sponsors Abolition Bill

Legislators in the Virginia House and Senate are poised to attempt a repeal of its cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute, as Governor Ralph Northam (pic­tured) announced that he would spon­sor a bill to end the commonwealth’s death penalty. 

Northam issued a call to abol­ish the death penal­ty dur­ing his January 13, 2021 State of the Commonwealth address mark­ing the open­ing of the 2021 leg­isla­tive ses­sion. ​“It’s time to change the law and end the death penal­ty in Virginia,” Northam said. ​“We’re tak­ing these actions because we val­ue peo­ple and we believe in treat­ing them equitably.” 

His action marked the first time in Virginia his­to­ry that a sit­ting gov­er­nor had spon­sored death-penal­ty repeal legislation.

Legislators intro­duced three repeal bills in the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate on the leg­isla­tive session’s first day. Two — SB 1165, intro­duced by Sen. Scott Surovell (D – Fairfax) with Republican co-patron, Bill Stanley (R – Franklin) and HB 2263, intro­duced by Del. Michael Mullin (D – Newport News) — are spon­sored by the Governor. Del. Lee Carter (D – Manassas) has also intro­duced an abo­li­tion bill, HB 1779. Legislative lead­ers plan to con­duct hear­ings on the repeal bills in the next several weeks.

The repeal bills appeared to gain momen­tum in the days lead­ing up to the start of the leg­isla­tive ses­sion as state Attorney General Mark Herring and twelve coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors joined a coali­tion of African American faith lead­ers in call­ing for abolition. 

Echoing Northam’s mes­sage, Herring said ​“it is time for Virginia to end the death penal­ty.” ​“I will sup­port Governor Northam’s efforts to make it hap­pen this year,” he said. ​“Its abo­li­tion must be part of our work to reform a flawed and imper­fect crim­i­nal justice system.”

Riding a wave of elec­tion vic­to­ries, a new orga­ni­za­tion of reform pros­e­cu­tors, Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, also advo­cat­ed for abo­li­tion. Twelve reform pros­e­cu­tors in the group, who rep­re­sent near­ly 40% of the commonwealth’s pop­u­la­tion includ­ing the Washington, DC sub­urbs of Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County, and the cities of Charlottesville, Newport News, and Norfolk, wrote a let­ter to leg­isla­tive lead­ers call­ing for sys­temic crim­i­nal jus­tice reforms. ​“The death penal­ty is unjust, racial­ly biased, and inef­fec­tive at deter­ring crime,” they wrote. ​“We have more equi­table and effec­tive means of keep­ing our com­mu­ni­ties safe and address­ing society’s most heinous crimes. It is past time for Virginia to end this antiquated practice. 

Leaders from the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy also joined the call for abo­li­tion. A group of Black pas­tors offered their sup­port at a vir­tu­al news con­fer­ence. Rev. Dr. LaKeisha Cook, jus­tice reform orga­niz­er for the Center, said, ​“The his­to­ry of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment finds its roots in slav­ery, lynch­ing and Jim Crow. Capital pun­ish­ment is a racial jus­tice issue. It is beyond time for us to address this historical sin.”

The Death Penalty Information Center’s September 2020 report, Enduring Injustice: The Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Death Penalty spot­light­ed the his­to­ry of bla­tant dis­crim­i­na­tion in Virginia’s use of the death penal­ty in the 20^th cen­tu­ry. From 1900 to 1969, four times as many Black pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed for mur­der than whites. In that same time, 73 Black pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed for rape, attempt­ed rape, or rob­bery unac­com­pa­nied by mur­der, while no white pris­on­er was exe­cut­ed for any crime oth­er than murder.

Abolition in Virginia is con­sid­ered sym­bol­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant because the state has exe­cut­ed more peo­ple since the death penal­ty was re-enact­ed in the 1970s than any state oth­er than Texas. No state in the Deep South has abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. However, the death penal­ty has been los­ing favor in Virginia over the past decade. The last exe­cu­tion in the com­mon­wealth took place in 2017 and no one has been sen­tenced to death since 2011. Only two peo­ple remain on the commonwealth’s death row. 

Twenty-two U.S. states have abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and ten have done so in the last fif­teen years. Three death-penal­ty states — California, Pennsylvania, and Oregon — who col­lec­tive­ly com­prise near­ly one-third of the nation’s death-row pop­u­la­tion — have mora­to­ria on exe­cu­tions. No Atlantic coast state north of Virginia still per­mits the death penalty.