Remarks for November 21, 2019
Murder Victim Family Members Press Conference
Good morning. My name is Michael Stone and I am Executive Director of Virginians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP).
The first documented execution in what is now the United states took place in Jamestown
when Captain George Kendall was executed for spying in 1608. Throughout its history as
a colony and a state, Virginia has executed more than 1,300 people, the most of any other
state. Virginia has also executed more women and the youngest children of any state.
Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume after a
three-year hiatus, Virginia has executed 113 people, second only to Texas in the United
States.
In the 1990's six to ten people were sentenced to death annually. As many as fourteen
were put to death in a single year.
But times have changed. In the past thirteen years nine states have ended capital
punishment. Since 1973, 166 people sentenced to death in the United States were later
found to be innocent. In that same period of time 1,510 people have been executed.
That's a ratio of one innocent person sentenced to death for every nine executed.
Here in Virginia there is growing opposition to use of the death penalty. Nearly two-
thirds of the state's 133 local jurisdictions have not had an execution in over 50 years. No
one has been sentenced to death in the Commonwealth since September of 2011, over
eight years ago.
There are only two men on Virginia's death row, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
has remanded both of their cases to lower courts to consider whether errors in their trials
should overturn their death sentences. It is entirely possible that Virginia’s death row
will be empty within a year.
There have been a growing chorus of voices here in the Commonwealth voicing their
opposition to capital punishment. Leaders in almost every faith tradition oppose capital
punishment. Young conservatives increasingly view the death penalty as a misguided
public policy by an over-reaching government that is unnecessary, expensive, arbitrary,
and degrading to human life and dignity.
Today we are here to highlight 13 courageous family members of murder victims in
Virginia. They have banded together and endorsed a sign-on letter calling on the General
Assembly to abolish the death penalty.
Many other victim family members oppose capital punishment, but were unwilling to
sign a public statement for a variety of personal reasons.
I now want to introduce Rachel Sutphin. Her father - Corporal Eric E. Sutphin with the
Montgomery County Sheriff's Office — was killed in Blacksburg during a manhunt for
William Morva on August 6, 2006. Ms. Sutphin pleaded with then-Governor Terry
McAuliffe to spare the life of Morva and reduce his sentence to life in prison without
parole. She never received a response to her plea and Morva was executed on July 6,
2017.
Rachel wants to share her experience and explain why she as the daughter of a murder
victim sees the death penalty as inefficient, ineffective, and traumatic for many murder
victim families.
