1/18/2021 Opinion: Virginia should seize this moment to abolish the death penalty - The Virginian-Pilot - The Virginian-Pilot
Opinion: Virginia should seize this moment to
abolish the death penalty
By REV. DR. DUANE HARDY, REV. DR. KEITH JONES, REV. JAMES PAGE and REV. DR. MARVIN D.
WARNER
FOR THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT | JAN 16, 2021
sd fled
FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2010 file photo prison guards stand outside the entrance to the Greensville Correctional Center, where executions
are carried out, in Jarratt, Va. Death penalty opponents are cautiously optimistic they have enough bipartisan support from lawmakers to
pass a bill in 2021 ending executions in Virginia. Democratic Sen. Scott Surovell is again sponsoring a bill that would abolish the death
penalty, and he has a Republican chief co-patron. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) (Steve Helber/AP)
The events of the past year have compelled us to think deeply about Virginia’s
legacy of racial oppression and terror, giving our state the opportunity to move
towards healing and reconciliation. Reconciliation requires an acknowledgement of
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1/18/2021 Opinion: Virginia should seize this moment to abolish the death penalty - The Virginian-Pilot - The Virginian-Pilot
past wrongs, and a restoration of
trust between those who have been
harmed and those who have caused
harm.
One of our state’s most egregious
wrongs has been the devaluation of
Black life through the execution of
hundreds of Black residents,
sometimes for petty crimes, and
other times for no crimes at all.
Therefore, a group of pastors from
across the state, came together this
Rey, Dr. Duane Hardy is co-chairperson of the Social Justice
month to call on the Virginia General Committee of Henrico Ministers' Conference and senior pastor of
. Seven Pines Baptist Church. (HANDOUT)
Assembly to acknowledge this
shameful history and end state-
sanctioned executions in the
commonwealth once and for all.
Virginia’s death penalty is rooted in
racial oppression. In the beginning of
the 20th century, lawmakers updated
our state Constitution to encourage
an increase in state-sanctioned
executions against Black residents as
a way of enforcing Jim Crow laws
and preserving the “social order.”
Lynching of Black men and women
had become so commonplace — it’s
estimated that at least 90 lynchings
occurred between 1880 and 1926 —
that lawmakers felt they had to
wrestle the noose out of the hands of
Rey. Dr. Keith Jones is president of the Tidewater Metro Baptist
Ministers' Conference and senior pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church
in Norfolk. (HANDOUT)
the lynch mob by reassuring them
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1/18/2021 Opinion: Virginia should seize this moment to abolish the death penalty - The Virginian-Pilot - The Virginian-Pilot
that the state would take on the ’
responsibility of carrying out
executions.
Between 1901 and 1981, the
commonwealth executed 258 Black
people for a wide variety of offenses,
including armed robbery and
attempted rape. During this time,
nearly six times more Black people
were executed than white people,
and no white person was executed
for any crime other than murder.
Rey, James Page is co-chairperson of the Virginia UMC
Conference Board of Church and Society and senior pastor of
Galloway United Methodist Church. (Roberta Oster / HANDOUT)
Many of the Black men and women
who were executed were tried by all-
white juries in proceedings that were
conducted without evidence and
without regard to due process. In
1908, an intellectually impaired 17-
year-old Black boy was executed for
frightening a 12-year-old white
schoolgirl. The boy, Winston Green,
who could not read or write, was
tried without a lawyer.
In another case in 1909, Clifton Rey. Dr. Marvin D. Warner is president of the Danville Ministers!
, Alliance and assistant pastor of North Hope Baptist
Breckenridge, was charged, tried and Church, (HANDOUT)
sentenced to death for “attempted
criminal assault” against a white girl in proceedings that lasted no more than a few
hours.
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1/18/2021 Opinion: Virginia should seize this moment to abolish the death penalty - The Virginian-Pilot - The Virginian-Pilot
More than a century later, race continues to influence every aspect of capital cases,
from charging decisions and jury selection to sentencing. Nearly three-quarters of
the Black people who have been executed by the commonwealth in the last 40 years
were convicted of killing at least one white person, even though most white people
are killed by other white people. One study found that defendants are three times
more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is Black.
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moment to abolish the death
penalty been exonerated and released from
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death row nationally — more than
half of them Black.
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We must acknowledge this shameful
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Pursuing the death penalty is also a waste of public resources. It has cost our state
millions of dollars annually. These precious tax dollars should be invested in
creating opportunities for our communities, finding more effective responses to
violence, and helping victims of crime to heal. The death penalty’s continued use is
an obstacle to rebuilding trust between our communities and achieving lasting,
comprehensive criminal justice reform.
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1/18/2021 Opinion: Virginia should seize this moment to abolish the death penalty - The Virginian-Pilot - The Virginian-Pilot
We applaud Gov. Ralph Northam’s decision to introduce a bill to abolish the death
penalty and encourage all legislators to support abolition.
Rev. Dr. Duane Hardy is co-chairperson of the Social Justice Committee of
Henrico Ministers’ Conference and senior pastor of Seven Pines Baptist
Church.Rev. Dr. Keith Jones is president of the Tidewater Metro Baptist
Ministers’ Conference and senior pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Norfolk. Rev.
James Page is co-chairperson of the Virginia UMC Conference Board of Church
and Society and senior pastor of Galloway United Methodist Church. Rev. Dr.
Marvin D. Warner is president of the Danville Ministers’ Alliance and assistant
pastor of North Hope Baptist Church.
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