By Dominic Taylor-
Virginia has become the 23rd US state to abolish capital punishment, ending over four decades of the practise.
It is the first state in the South to break ties with past laws on the death penalty since the US Supreme Court reinstated the measure in 1976.
Its historic law goes into effect in July after the state’s Democratic governor, Ralph Northam denounced the death penalty as the consequence of a flawed system.
The move was the result of Democrats who argued the death penalty has been applied disproportionately to people of color, mentally ill people and poor people.
Republicans argued that the death penalty should remain a sentencing option for especially heinous crimes and to bring justice to victims and their families.
Virginia’s new Democratic majority won the debate last month when the senate and house of delegates passed measures banning capital punishment.
The state’s Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, signed the house and senate bills in a ceremony on Wednesday after touring the execution chamber at the Greensville correctional center, where 102 people have been put to death since executions were moved there from the Virginia state penitentiary in the early 1990s.
“There is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the south or in this nation,” Northam said shortly before signing the legislation.
Flawed Judicial System
Northam said the death penalty has been disproportionately applied to Black people, and is the product of a flawed judicial system. Since 1973, more than 170 people around the country have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence was uncovered, he said.
Northam recounted the story of Earl Washington Jr, a Black man who was sentenced to death after being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in Virginia in 1984. Washington spent more than 17 years in prison before he was exonerated. He came within nine days of being executed.
“We can’t give out the ultimate punishment without being 100% sure that we’re right, and we can’t sentence people to that ultimate punishment knowing that the system doesn’t work the same for everyone,” Northam said.
Controversial Law
The death penalty has long been a controversial law in the U.S, its many critics condemning it for its alleged tit-for tat hypocrisy .
Supporters of the practise have always considered the death penalty to be a means of both deterrence and retribution.
Speaking ahead of the signing at the Greensville Correctional Center, which is home to Virginia’s death chamber, Northam commented, ‘There is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the South or in this nation.’
He continued:
‘We can’t give out the ultimate punishment without being 100% sure that we’re right. And we can’t sentence people to that ultimate punishment knowing that the system doesn’t work the same for everyone.
The new law will now see two Virginia prison inmates who had previously been given the death sentence have their punishment commuted to life imprisonment.
Northam added: ‘Make no mistake, if you commit the most serious of crimes, you will be punished. But Virginia can do that without continuing a system that gets it wrong even once.’
Lawmakers in the state passed the legislation in February following an emotionally-charged debate.
Wrongful convictions and racial disparities in applying capital punishment were among the reasons to abolish the law, but some Republicans argued that the death penalty provides justice for the victims.
Figures from the Death Penalty Information Center show that Virginia has executed more than 1,300 people since the first recorded execution in 1608. Following the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976, Virginia carried out 113 execution.