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Editorial: Stop the bargains on executions
15 hrs ago
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EXECUTION remains the most severe penalty any government can exact.
But Virginia finds it increasingly difficult to carry out death sentences. The complications
have some asking if it’s worth the heavy lifting required.
It is not. It never was.
Like the other states that use lethal injection, Virginia can no longer easily obtain the
necessary drugs. As a result, the frequency of executions has slowed. The state’s ability to put
any additional inmates to death is in question.
In January, the Virginia Department of Corrections admitted it lacks the supplies needed to
execute Ricky Javon Gray, who was scheduled to die on March 16. Gray was convicted of
murdering Bryan and Kathryn Harvey, along with their 9- and 4-year-old daughters, in
Richmond on New Year’s Day in 2006. Last month, a federal appeals court stayed the
execution until the Supreme Court decides whether to hear Gray’s case.
Companies that make the drug compounds don’t want to be associated with executions.
Some have been subject to boycotts. Others have barred the use of their products in
executions, even for people convicted of the most heinous crimes.
That means states like Virginia must scramble to find a substitute. It causes states to take
risks and to experiment with drugs in order to carry out death sentences.
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3/11/2016 Editorial: Stop the bargains on executions | Editorials | pilotonline.com
Two years ago in Oklahoma, for example, authorities used an experimental drug protocol but
refused to say where the drugs had come from. The condemned man writhed on the gurney
until the execution was halted after 20 minutes. The man died of a heart attack 43 minutes
after receiving the experimental drugs.
In October, Virginia used three drugs, including pentobarbital obtained from Texas, to
execute Alfredo Prieto, a murderer linked to at least six slayings in California and Virginia.
Prieto’s lawyers challenged the legality of using a drug that Virginia officials had received in
an interstate exchange shrouded in secrecy.
Virginia isn’t simply playing fast and loose with the methods by which it executes people. The
entire process has required lawmakers to twist state law, driven by their determination to
follow through with an expensive, antiquated and cruel punishment.
In 2015, in an effort to carry out the Prieto execution, corrections officials pushed for
legislation that would exempt manufacturers of lethal-injection drugs from public records
law. The Senate passed the measure, but the House defeated it.
This year, Gov. Terry McAuliffe threatened to stop a critical open-government bill because
the Department of Corrections feared it could shed unwanted light on the capital punishment
process. The measure was a legislative response to a Supreme Court ruling that kept death
penalty-related records from public release.
Sadly, our government is unwilling to confront the flaws in the commonwealth’s criminal
justice system. Instead, because most polls show that Virginians support the death penalty,
lawmakers have gone to extraordinary lengths to continue carrying out executions.
Death penalty proponents have made it clear that Virginia must use whatever means
available to kill Gray and the others on death row.
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3/11/2016 Editorial: Stop the bargains on executions | Editorials | pilotonline.com
This week, the General Assembly approved a bill allowing the state to use the electric chair if
drugs are not available. It passed the Senate Monday and now heads to the governor.
Putting criminals to death is one of the few things that brings Virginia’s elected officials
together: Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw joined Democratic Sen. Jeremy McPike in
crossing the aisle to support the Senate’s 20 Republicans on the vote.
Reverting to the electric chair wasn’t a bridge too far for legislators. It remains to be seen if
the governor agrees. He shouldn’t. The time for such ugly compromises is over. It’s time for
Virginia to forgo the secrecy, the questionable protocols and the expense of executions and
abandon the death penalty.
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