Memo re Points Concerning HB 815 (giving DOC Director discretion to revert to electrocution as
method of execution).
1. Like Other States, Virginia Can Carry Out Executions If It Wants To (see attached)
Seven executions by lethal injection have been carried out by four different states just since the start of the year,
including two this week. Clearly, states that want to find drugs have been successful in doing so. In the General
Assembly’s 2014 session, the DOC also tried to get electrocution approved by claiming to be without drugs
needed for lethal injection, until media exposed this claim as false.
2. The DOC Has Drugs Needed For Lethal Injection
DOC admits it still has two doses of compounded pentobarbital—the sedative used to execute Alfredo Prieto on
Oct. 1, 2015—but also claims it is currently unable to carry out an execution by lethal injection because it lacks
sedative drugs to use in the execution. The Attorney General defended the sufficiency of these drugs vigorously
in court in October. In reliance on these representations, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson approved the drugs
for use in lethal injections, and only one dose was used to execute Prieto.
3. Electrocution Is Not Needed Because The DOC Intends to Use The Drugs It Has To Carry Out Lethal
Injection If Electrocution Bill Is Not Passed
VDOC claims that it will not explain why it cannot use the drugs used last October to carry out a lethal injection
due to “potential litigation.” But the only “potential” for “litigation” that could occur is if the VDOC still
intended to use these drugs in a lethal injection if it cannot get legislation passed authorizing electrocution.
4. Passing HB 815 Will Eliminate The Supreme Court Of Virginia’s Protection Prohibiting Inmates
From Challenging Methods Of E ion In Virginia (see attached)
HB 815 takes away a condemned inmate’s choice of his method of execution and transfers the choice to the
unsupervised and unfettered discretion of the Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections. This change
eliminates the basis upon which the Supreme Court of Virginia has prevented inmates from challenging
methods of execution in Virginia, and invites persistent litigation over particular methods of execution to be
used in each inmate’s case.
5. Virginia Courts Have Never Assessed Whether Electrocution In Virginia Is Cruel And Unusual And
Instead Has Relied on A Decision That Is Nearly 100 Years Old That Did Not Review The Practice Of
Electrocution In Virginia (see attached)
Supporters of HB 815 maintain that the Supreme Court of Virginia has found execution by electrocution not to
be cruel and unusual punishment. The truth is that no Virginia court ever has reviewed the specific procedures
for electrocution, let alone found them constitutional. Court cases discussing electrocution merely sight to cases
that sight to earlier cases tracing back to Hart v. Commonwealth, 109 S.E.2d 582 (Va. 1921), a decision that is
almost 100 years old, in which the Court approved the execution of a black man for attempted rape of a white
woman. The Court found the death was warranted for an attempted crime to avoid the “likelihood of resort to
lynch law.”
6. The Decision On Which Method Of Execution Will Be Used To Carry Out Executions Should Be
Determined By The General Assembly And Known To The Condemned and Jurors Asked To Decide
Whether People Should Be Sentenced To Death
DOC Director makes determination about which method of execution to use without supervision or scrutiny.
HB 815 provides no standard the Director is to employ, no time limit he must meet, and no one to whom he
Memo re Points Concerning HB 815 (giving DOC Director discretion to revert to electrocution as
method of execution).
must report or from whom he must seek approval. Under HB 815, the Director can change the method of
execution at any time, without explaining his reason to anyone, and without having to answer to anyone. The
bill effectively cedes to the Director the unmonitored authority and secrecy the House of Delegates refused to
provide in the bill submitted last year on behalf of the VDOC.
7. The History of Electrocution In Virginia Is Racist And Should Not Be Continued (see attached)
Electrocution was first promoted in Virginia as a way to avoid the “likelihood of resort to lynch law.” Swift and
severe punishment was promised if people would hold off on lynching. The vast majority of people put to death
in the electric chair have been people of color. Less than a year after South Carolina lowered the Confederate
flag from its capitol building, Virginia is prepared to revive another symbol of the Jim Crow South—the electric
chair.
8. Virginia Has A History of Botched Electrocutions (see attached)
Electrocutions in Virginia have resulted in agonizing deaths and horrifying public spectacles. Frank Coppola’s
body burst into flames and smoke, filling the death chamber with the sizzling sound of frying and the smell of
burnt flesh. Blood poured from Wilbert Evans’s mouth and nose, prompting the Department of Corrections to
make substantial changes to its protocol. Despite the changes, the physician reported that Derick Peterson was
still alive after he was subjected to electrocution; the cycle had to be repeated in order to kill him, taking
thirteen minutes. Other, more recent, electrocutions include descriptions of similar violence and cruelty.
9. The National C Has Rejected Electrocution As A State-Selected Method Of Electrocution (see
attached)
In 1999, the Supreme Court of the United States was poised to address whether electrocution was prohibited as
a cruel and unusual punishment, but the case was made moot when Florida replaced electrocution with lethal
injection. No state currently approves electrocution as a primary method of execution. It has been almost 15
years since anyone has been executed by electrocution who did not choose that method. The supreme courts of
Georgia (2001) and Nebraska (2008) have ruled that the use of the electric chair violates state constitutional
prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. In 2014, Tennessee passed legislation allowing use of
electrocution if lethal injection drugs were not available. But no electrocution has been carried out and, in 2015,
the Tennessee Supreme Court suspended all executions until ongoing litigation about electrocution has been
resolved.
10. Electrocution Is A Horrifying, Ghoulish, Cruel, And Unusual Method Of Execution (see attached)
A former U.S. Supreme Court Justice once described an execution by electric chair:
[T]he prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often
defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature
rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes
the prisoner catches fire. .. . Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and
the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber. (Ecenbarger, 1994).
At postmortem, the body is hot enough to blister if touched, and the autopsy is delayed while the internal organs
cool. There are third-degree burns with blackening where the electrodes met the skin of the scalp and legs.
According to Robert H. Kirschner, the deputy chief medical examiner of Cook County, "The brain appears
cooked in most cases." (Weisberg, 1991).
A video prepared by Virginia executioners advised those attending an electrocution to be prepared to
soak their clothing for days after in an effort to remove the stench.
