The Washington Post 4 Sunday, July 26, 2020
Local Opinions Page (C4)
The time has
by Pau. O'SHEA
irginia will have a lifesaving
opportunity in 2021 to bring
two racial and criminal jus-
tice movements together, re-
dressing in a modest way biased
judicial histories.
Capital punishment in Virginia can
be erased in 2021, when the General
Assembly considers and passes repeal
legislation. It will be a it
acknowledging the
jury
inflicted on black Virginians over
centuries,
Our commonwealth holds the du.
bious honor of being the first and
most lethal executioner in the nation.
it was in the
Jamestown
in George
jall was shot for treason, the
state's first recorded execution. Since
then, no other state — not Texas, not
Okjahoma, not Plorida — has inflicted
the irreversible punishment on more
of its citizens.
Lynchings, particularly in Virginia,
were the linkage between vigilante
justice and later racial violence. From
1865 to 1950, nearly 6,500 document-
¢d lynchings occurred in the United
States, Seven in LO-victims were black,
The death penalty’s modern era
began in 1976 when the Supreme
Courtrestored the punishment after a
four-year moratorium. Since then, 113
men and Women have been executed
in Virginia, and race frequently has
been an important factor. Only four
come to end Virginia's death penalty
MIM DOTSPOREY THE WASHINGTON POST
An anti-death penalty vigil In Arfington In 2015.
executions involved a white defen-
dant killing a black person, all since
1997,
Defendants’ and victims’ skin col-
ors play crucial and unacceptable
roles in deciding who receives the
death penalty in the United States,
While black people make up 13
percent of the population, they ac-
count for 42 percent of the 2,620 1
and women on death row. Seve
percent of those executed since 976
had white victims even though 50
pereent of murder victims are white,
Only 15 percent of executions since
1976 had a black victim
Progress toward Virginia death
penalty reform has grown steadily in
the past decade, as death sentences in
Virginia are largely a relic of the past.
The last death sentence in Virginia
was handed down in 2011 The last
execution took place in 2017, Current-
ly, two black men are on death row. In
each case, there are reasons to believe
their sentences could be overturned
by the courts because of significant
trial errors,
Repeal is just over the horizon,
while progress on reform appeared
recently. In the 2020 legislative ses-
sion, the Virginia Senate approved a
bill to prohibit the execution of se-
verely mentally ill prisoners by an
overwhelming 32-to-7__ bipartisan
margin. The House of Delegates did
not consider the bill, however.
In 1991, 15 advocates formed Vir-
ginians Against State Killing as a
response to a survey that revealed
that while citizens supported the
death penalty, if given a choice, Vir-
ginia citizens they favored a sentence
of life without parole and certain
ions over capital punishment.
ation became Virginians
for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
in 1904.
Today, Virginians for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty has more than
3,000 members representing a cross
section of political and religious be.
liefs and affiliations. In addition to
traditional allies such as Democrats
and progressives, the issue has at-
tracted large numbers of advocates
who classify themselves as conserva-
tives and libertarians. In 2021, Virgin-
jans for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty will commemorate its 30th
anniversary, with the strong convic-
tion that capital punishment will dis-
appear from the states criminal code,
In this unique time of need for
racial healing and restoration, ending
the death penalty in Virginia will be
judged as a small but significant step
in reconciliation.
The writer is vice president cf Virginians
for Altematives to the Death Panaity
