Virginia will have a lifesaving opportunity in 2021 to bring two racial and criminal
justice movements together, redressing 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 historic step in acknowledging
the systemic injury inflicted on black Virginians over centuries.
Our commonwealth holds the dubious honor of being the first and most lethal
executioner in the nation. Indeed, it was in the Jamestown Colony of 1608 that
Captain George Kendall was shot for treason, the state's first recorded execution.
Since then, no other state - not Texas, not Oklahoma, not Florida - has inflicted the
irreversible punishment on more of its citizens.
Lynchings, particularly in Virginia, were the linkage between vigilante justice and
later racial violence. 4; H i j
From 1882 te 1968_4,743 lynchings occurred in the United
States.
Seven in 10 were black victims.
The death penalty's modern era began in 1976 when the Supreme Court restored
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 executions involved a white
defendant killing a black person, all since 1997.
Defendants’ and victims' skin colors 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 account for 42
percent of the 2,620 men and women on death row.
Seventy-six percent of those executed since 1976 had white victims
Only 15 percent of
defendants whe-kitted-a black wer uted
d-a-black person-wer j
Progress toward Virginia death penalty reform has grown steadily in the past
decade, as death sentences +
since 2010. The last death sentence in Virginia was handed down in 2011. The last
execution took place in 2017. Currently, 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 session, the Virginia Senate approved a bill to prohibit the
execution of severely mentally ill prisoners by an overwhelming 32-7 bipartisan
margin. The House of Delegates did not consider the bill, however.
The abolition movement in Virginia began in 1991, when 13 advocates formed
Virginians Against State Killing as a response to a survey that revealed that white-
iti , if given a choice, Virginia citizens they favored
a sentence of life without parole and certain restrictions
The organization became Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty in 1994,
Today, Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty has more than 3,000
members representing a cross section of political and religious beliefs and
affiliations. In addition to traditional allies such as Democrats and progressives, the
issue has attracted large numbers of advocates who classify themselves as
conservatives and libertarians. In 2021, Virginians for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty will commemorate its 30th anniversary, with the strong conviction that
capital punishment will disappear from the state's criminal code.
In this unique time of the 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 of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
