"The Death Penalty in Virginia" Presentation Slides, ElderStudy Fredericksburg, Video Final, 2017 October 17

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= he Death Penalty

in Virginia
October 17, 2017

ElderStudy
Fredericksburg

Historical Background on
Virginia & the Death Penalty

The first execution in the New
World took place in Virginia in
1608 when Captain George
Kendall was executed by firing
squad in Jamestown for
spying. Throughout its history
as a colony and a state,
Virginia has executed more
than 1,300 people, more than
any other state. Virginia has
executed the most women and
the youngest children of any
state.

" Richmond Times-Dispatch Op-Ed
(January 29, 2012)

Historical Background on
Virginia & the Death Penalty

Hanging was the
predominant method for
executions before 1909.

Other methods were used
— three people convicted
of piracy in 1700 were
gibbeted, four pirates
were hanged in chains in
1720, and a female slave
was burned in 1737.

From 1910 until 1994, the
electric chair was used
for all executions.

Era of Lynchings

In 1892, after a white girl said she
had been accosted by a black man
wearing rubber boots, a mob
grabbed the first black man they
found with rubber boots on and
hanged him near Wasena Bridge.

The next year, Roanoke's mayor
called in the state militia to stop
another mob from lynching a black
man accused of assault. Eight died
in the ensuing gunfire. The clashes
continued until police handed
Thomas Smith over to the rabble.
Smith was proved innocent after
his death.

A Legacy of Lynchings

Medium

Dato

‘Colored Men Loeb at Clitom Purge T.« Oxt 17,1802. > |

MAP OF VIRGINIA'S

aS LYNCHING HISTORY

Horrors repeated in 1904, when a white woman and her
daughter were brutally attacked in their home by a black
stranger. Whites believed black residents were harboring the
killer and went on rampages based on rumors, in one
instance tying an innocent black man to a telephone pole
and lashing the screaming victim with electric wires. The
vitriol didn't subside until Henry Williams was arrested,
convicted and executed by hanging in the Roanoke jail yard.

Lynching Postcards

1) Flip to back

See all 7 images

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The Tuskegee Institute records ihe lynching of 3,436 blacks between 1882 and 1950. This is probably a
small percentage of these murders, which were seldom reported, and led to the creation of the NAACP
in 1909, an organization dedicated to passing federal anti-lynching laws. Through alll this terror and
carnage someone-many times a professional photographer-carried a camera and took pictures of the
events. These lynching photographs were often made into postcards and sold as souvenirs to the
crowds in attendance. These images are some of photography's most brutal, surviving to this day so that
we may now look back on the terrorism unleashed on America's African-American community and
perhaps know our history and ourselves better. The almost one hundred images reproduced here are a
testament to the camera's ability to make us remember what we often choose to forget.

* Read less

CG Report incorrect product information.

Lynching in the
New South

Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930

(ED

* From 1880 to 1930 at
least 70 black men in
Virginia were lynched.

* Law rooted in concern
that mob violence was a
threat to attract
business & industry.

* No white person was
ever convicted of
lynching an African-
American.

Public Executions

Roanoke's racial climate was typical
in the South.

"During this era, both lynchings and
executions typically drew large
crowds of spectators," said Ted
DeLaney, associate professor of
history at Washington and Lee
University. "There were executions
and lynchings in other parts of the
South that drew crowds as large as
3,000. Sometimes public schools
would close so children could be
present."

- "Roanoke's last public execution,"
Roanoke Times (June 14, 2007)

Modern Death Penalty
Era

° U.S. Supreme Court outlawed
capital punishment in 1972
(Furman v. Georgia)

- Inconsistent application of the DP
- Racial disparities in the DP

° Revised state laws approved by
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976
(Gregg v. Georgia)

- Implemented two stage trail process
- Aggravating & mitigating factors

“eath Penalty States
Re 31

Alabama Louisiana South
Arizona Mississippi Carolina
Arkansas Missouri South Dakota
California Montana Tennessee
Colorado Nebraska Texas
Florida Nevada Utah
Georgia New Virginia
Idaho Hampshire Washington
Indiana North Wyoming
Kansas Carolina
Kentucky Ohio U.S.
Oklahoma Government
Oregon U.S. Military

SOURCE: Death pena Gansylvan 1A, Site January 19 2017]

Death Penalty
States (blue)

Executions by State Since 1976

Texas
Oklahoma
Virginia
Florida
Missouri
Georgia
Alabama
Ohio
North
Carolina
South
Carolina
Arizona
Arkansas
Louisiana

SOURCE: Death PeKaenibtpctayion Center Web Site [October 10 2017]

As of October 10, 2017

Mississipp
i

Indiana
Delaware
California
Illinois
Nevada
Utah
Tennessee
Maryland
Washingto
n
Nebraska
Pennsylva
nia

Montana
Idaho

Government
Oregon

New Mexico
Colorado
Wyoming
Connecticut

TOTAL

PREP NWW WW

‘7
Pp

Death Row Prisoners by State
As of July 1, 2016

California 741 Oklahoma 48 Washington 9
Florida 396 Mississippi 47 Utah 9
Texas 254 South 43 Virginia 7
Alabama 194 Carolina 36 U.S. 6
Pennsylvania 175 Arkansas 34 Military 3
N. Carolina 155 Kentucky 34 Colorado 3
Ohio 142 Oregon 26 South 2
Arizona 126 Missouri 18 Dakota 2
Nevada 80 Delaware* 12 Montana 2
Louisiana 77 ~=Indiana 10 New Mexico 1
Tennessee 69 Kansas TOM *

Georgia 68 Nebraska 9 Wyoming 2,90
U.S. 62 Idaho New 5
Government Hampshire

SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center Web Site [November 13, 2015].
OTAL

Complexity of the Death
Penalty

° U.S. Supreme Court outlawed
capital punishment in 1972
(Furman v. Georgia)

- Inconsistent application of the DP
- Racial disparities in the DP

° Revised state laws approved by
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976
(Gregg v. Georgia)

- Implemented two stage trial process
- Aggravating & mitigating factors

Procedural Safeguards
ABP Cacecae

State Habeas Corpus

Petition to
Supreme Court
of Virginia

If granted (rare),
Hearing with the
Circuit Court

Decision by the
Virginia Supreme
Court

Geography of the Death Penalty

m= South

m Midwest
m West

m Northeast
eTX&VA

Series1
SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center Fact Sheet [November 13, 2015]

Virginia & the Death
- Penalty

* Virginia has executed 113
people since 1976, tied for
second most in the United
States.

° Virginia executes the highest
percentage of those sentenced to
death (75%) in the U.S.

¢ Virginia is fastest in the nation from
sentencing to execution (7.1 years
on average).

1. Limited Government

MAN

IS NOT FREE

UNLESS

GOVERNMENT
IS LIMITED

The power to execute is
perhaps the greatest power
government could exercise
over its citizens.

There is good reason to be
suspicious of this power.

Error or, even worse, abuse in
the exercise of this power
leads to deprivation of the
very rights government
should protect - life, liberty,
and property.

Conservative Arguments
Against the Death Penalty

ae 1. Limited government

/ PROUD \ 2. Fiscal responsibility,
(CONSERVATIVE,

YUEp 3.Problem of
innocence, and

4.Collateral Damage.

Deterrence to Murder <>

STOP

¢ A report by the National Research
Council, titled Deterrence and the
Death Penalty, stated that studies
claiming that the death penalty has
a deterrent effect on murder rates
are “fundamentally flawed” and
should not be used when making
policy decisions (2012).

SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center Fact Sheet [October 16, 2012]

Public Safety

¢ Average murder rate in states with the death
penalty (2014): 4.75 per 100,000 people

¢ Average murder rate in states without the
death penalty (2014): 3.70 per 100,000
people

* In polls from 1995 and 2009, police chiefs
ranked the death penalty least effective
among ways to reduce violent crime.

SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center Fact Sheet [October 16, 2012]

In Virginia it’s easier
to take a person's
liberty or life than

their property:
° In Sh Sweuits, both sides

must turn over virtually
everything to the opponent and
sit for pretrial depositions.

* Criminal defendants are not
entitled to the police reports
in their case, the witness
statements against them or
even a witness list.

“Trial by ambush
has been the nor
¢ Retired Loudoun

Circuit Court Judge
Thomas D. Horne

Death Penalty ° \ v,
Disparities in 5

VITA Won is over THREE times as
likely to be sentenced to death
if the victim is white than when
the victim is black.

¢ Murder convictions in rural
and suburban areas are
TWICE as likely to end in the
death penalty as those in
Urban Jurisdictions of the Virginia

Review of Virginia’s System of Capital Punishment [2000]

Death Penalty
Disparities in
V asepist itd 133 political jurisdictions in

the
Commonwealth have NOT had an

execution since 1976.

* Three jurisdictions [Chesterfield,
Prince William, & Virginia Beach] are
responsible for 23% of executions.

¢ Six jurisdictions [Chesterfield,
Fairfax, Hampton, Pittsylvania,
PSTESHOU OP PNES Willan "& 19 2016).
Virginia Beach] account for 41% of
the state’s executions.

2. Fiscal Responsibility

Why the death penalty is so
expensive:

¢ Additional legal costs

* Complicated pretrial procedures
* Time consuming jury selection
Separate sentencing trial

Lengthy mandatory post-conviction
appeals in state & federal courts

* Higher incarceration costs for
death row

Death Penalty Costs in

Kansas
Cost Items Capital Trials Non-Capital
Trials
Defense $395,762 $98,963
Trial Court $ 72,530 $21,554
Juries 40.13 days 16.79 days
Prison $49,380/year $24,690/year
Cases that
did not go to
trial
Defense $130,595 $64,711
Trial Court $ 16,263 $ 7,384

* Justices of

the Kansas Su

preme Court assigned to

write opinions estimated they spent 20 times
more hours on death penalty appeals than on

non-death appeals.
SOURCE: "Report of the Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee,"
Judicial Council, Kansas Legislature, Feb. 13, 2014

3. The Problem of Innocence

THE FACES OF INNOCENCE je Since 1973, 159 people

have been released
from death row with
evidence of their
innocence.

* Many others have been
executed while serious
doubts have been raised
regarding their verdict.

¢ Since 1976, there is a
ratio of one innocent
person freed from death

DP
I C INFORMATION CENTER

Earl Washington

Sentence was commuted
to life in prison 9 days
before his scheduled

execution in 1994

Granted an absolute
pardon on October 2,
2000

VIRGINIANS FOR
ALTERNATIVES

TO THE DEATH PENALTY

Causes of Wrongful Capital

Number of Cases

Canvictianne

Causes of Wrongful Convictions

in 86 Death Row Cases

17
a i

Eyewitness Snitch Government False Junk Science Other
Error Misconduct Confession
Causes

SOURCE: 2001 study by the Center on Wrongful
Convictions at Northwestern Law School.

Post-Conviction DNA Testing
and Wrongful Conviction

DNA testing of old physical evidence from
634 sexual assault and homicide cases in
Virginia between 1973 and 1987.

" In 5% of these cases DNA testing

_ eliminated the convicted offender as

the source of incriminating physical
ad evidence.

= In sexual assault cases alone, DNA
testing eliminated 8-15% of convicted
offenders and supported exoneration.

SOURCE: 2012 study by the Justice Policy Center at the
Urban Institute

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/post-conviction-dna-testing-and-
wrongful-conviction

CSI Mythology

¢ DNA is a powerful tool,

C 1 « but such evidence is
* available in only 5-

CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION 10% of criminal cases.

* Imperfect forensic analysis

° Crime lab scandals
(e.g., hair & bite mark analysis)

¢ Prosecutorial misconduct

4. Collateral Damage
Human cost of the death penalty

Few people consider the impact of capital
punishment on a wide range of people who are
part of the system:

- Victim family members

- Prosecutors

- Defense attorneys

- Judges and jurors

- Family members of death row inmates
- Wardens and corrections officers

- Executioners

Daughter of a slain state trooper

Having spent my entire life
without my dad, | was angry
and had wanted his killers
executed.

But over time, after 1 saw how
the death penalty system
actually works, my feelings
on the Issue changed.

! believed that the death
penalty would benefit
people like my mother and
me, but in reality nothing

could be further from the
truth.

Capital Defense Attorneys

... defense attorneys are the ones who
are supposed to have the tools to stop
that execution. It’s a legal responsibility
that ends up feeling personal; the
clients’ lives are in their hands.
Attorneys | interviewed told me that
even if they might long for relief from
the rising panic that fills the weeks and
months before a client’s execution date,
taking time to do or even think about
anything else can feel irresponsible.

- Susannah Sheffer, "After Executions,
Defense Attorneys Have Their Own Grief"

A Juror in the Zacarias Moussaoui Case

The trial was emotionally
overwhelming for me. The
heart-wrenching stories of
loss and despair affected
me profoundly. ...

Most of us shared in the
nightmares described by so

In PRL AG NY WiahS betame whether the death

penalty is really an appropriate punishment for lying.
This decision was not an easy one and not reached
through any consideration of its popularity or general
acceptance.

Most of my fellow jurors concluded that the prosecution
did make its case. On two of the counts, 10 out of 12
voted in favor of execution. On the last count, | was
the sole juror who found for life in prison.

- Juror 526

Former Georgia death row guard
reflects

In many ways, we were the
only friends these men
[death row inmates] had
in the end. ...

/ will say this: I don’t believe
that when we execute a
person that it’s the same
person who committed
that crime. I do believe
people can change.

Former Virginia Executioner

! worked as a prison guard saving
lives most of the time. But when
! took on the role of executioner,
| had to become a killer. ...

The Earl Washington case [who was
exonerated by DNA evidence in
1993 si shook my faith in the

/ Beta tare re any innocents
ag FAST ELSE fT? The only thing | can
fife ©

eet to forgive me if | did.

* “Ex-Virginia executioner becomes opponent
of death penalty,” Washington Post
(February 10, 2013)

Six Former Executioners Speak Out

While most of the prisoners whose
executions we participated in accepted
responsibility for the crimes for which
they were punished, some of us have
also executed prisoners who ;
maintained their innocence until the aE

LiVghd vie thesagrans Le R2e6hAhing that we know
POH ERBEACEX WU SA2Mas the right to ask a public
servant to take on a lifelong sentence of nagging doubt,
and for some of us, shame and guilt.

Should our justice system be causing so much harm to so
many people when there is an alternative?

- Allen Ault - Retired Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classifications Prison

- Terry Collins - Retired Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction

- Ron McAndrew - Retired Warden, Florida State Prison
- Dennis O’Neill - Retired Warden, Florida State Prison

- Reginald Wilkinson - Retired Director, Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction

_ , oe ee Oy) eee ee ee eee a a, a ee a a a a ae

Problems with the death penalty
KILLERS AS STARS

* Capital cases put the focus on killers instead of
the friends & family members of their victims

* The mandatory appeals keep the killer’s photo
and story in front of the public for many years.

* The many appeals force family members of
victims to relive the trauma over & over again.

Lee Boyd Malvo:
The DC Area Sniper

When asked what he would say directly to [his
victims and their families], Malvo implored
people to forget about him.

“We can never change what happened,” Malvo
said. “There’s nothing that | can say except
don’t allow me and my actions to continue to
victimize you for the rest of your life. ...

“Don’t allow myself or Muhammad to continue
to make you a victim for the rest of your life,”
Malvo said. “It isn’t worth it.”

" Josh White, Lee Boyd Malvo: 10 years after
D.C. area sniper shootings, Washington
Post (September 29, 2012)

{pes Religious Teachings on
Go Capital Punishment

OPPOSE
“Roman Catholic Church
«American Baptist Church
“United Methodist Church

«Evangelical Lutheran Church

in America
«Presbyterian Church USA
“Episcopal Church

“*Reformed Church in America

“*United Church of Christ

“*Eastern Orthodox Churches

* Conservative, Reform &
Reconstructionist Jewish
movements (Orthodox:

SUPPORT
" Southern Baptist Church
* Lutheran Church - MO
Synod

= Islam (though strong strain of
mercy)

MIXED/NEUTRAL
¢ National Association of
Evangelical
¢ Assemblies of God
¢ Church of Latter Day
Saints
¢ Jehovah’s Witnesses
¢ Buddhism

moratonyy cs. The Pew Forum on Reliqign @uisec Life and
Religious Tolerance.org

But the tide
is turning
against the >
death |
penalty.

19 States have abolished
the death penalty

Alaska 1957 | Massachusetts | 1984 | Maryland 2013

Hawaii 1957 | Rhode Island 1984 Delaware 2016

Vermont | 1964 | New Jersey 2007

SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center Web Site [January 1, 2017].

11 more states have had no
executions in the past ten

years

California | 2006 New 1939
Hampshire

Colorado 1997 North Carolina 2006
Kansas 1965 Oregon 1997
Montana 2006 Pennsylvania 1999
Nebraska 1997 Wyoming 1992
Nevada 2006

SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center Web Site [October 10, 2017].

Red States Close to
Abolition

¢ 2016: Utah Senate votes to
end the DP & a key House
committee agrees, but the
bill fell a few votes short on

the H floor.
2015: Montana Usnate votes for

abolition, but failed in the House ona
50-50 tie vote.

2014: New Hampshire House voted
225-104 to end the DP, but failed in

Canatea ann tie vote

More States Considering DP Abolition