Now official, the decision is all the more symbolic as no state of the former Confederate South had yet taken this step. While it has the record of executions on American soil, Virginia joined, Wednesday March 24, the 22 other American states where the death penalty has already been abolished.
“Today, there is no place for the death penalty in this State, in the South and in this country”, said Democratic Governor Ralph Northam during a ceremony at Greensville Prison, where executions have so far been held. The abolition of the death penalty is “The right thing to do”, he said.
He mentioned in particular the case of Earl Washington, a disabled man who had been sentenced to death in 1984 and whose execution had been suspended only nine days before the scheduled date. He was ultimately acquitted in 2000.
“The system has allowed an innocent man to be convicted of murder and if Mr. Washington is the only person we know of to have been rescued from death row in Virginia, can we really be sure there is none? has no others? “, he asked.
“You cannot inflict this ultimate punishment without being 100% sure that you are right and you cannot inflict this ultimate punishment on someone knowing that the system does not work the same for everyone. “, he explained, pointing out that 296 of the 377 prisoners executed in the XXe century were African Americans. Governor Northam pointed out the story “Long and complicated” from Virginia, where “The racism and discrimination of our past are repeated today in our system [judiciaire] “.
After very tense debates, the two State Chambers voted in favor of a law to abolish the death penalty earlier this year. Virginia joins 22 other American states where the death penalty has already been abolished and three others (California, Oregon, Pennsylvania) which observe a moratorium.
European settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, carried out in 1608 what is considered the first execution on American soil, that of a captain accused of espionage.
Since then, Virginia has executed 1,391 convicts, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, more than any other U.S. territory. And since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, only Texas has carried out more executions.
An “extraordinarily significant” decision
Virginia was once home to the capital of the Confederate States during the Civil War (1861-1865) and its application of the death penalty is linked to its slavery past. The first slaves captured in Africa landed in Virginia in 1619.
Death Penalty Information Center executive director Robert Dunham hailed the decision “Extraordinarily significant” of the governor, at a time when the application of the death penalty continues to decline at the national level.
It is also “A historic point in race relations in the United States”, he added, recalling that the death penalty in this state “Is deeply rooted in slavery, lynchings and segregationist laws”.
For the past ten years, however, Virginia had virtually renounced the death penalty and only two convicts remained on death row. The law provides that their sentence be commuted to life imprisonment. “The government will no longer execute anyone, but be sure: if you commit the most serious of crimes, you will be punished”, warned Ralph Northam.
In 2020, most states suspended executions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Against the tide, Donald Trump’s administration has however returned to federal executions, interrupted for seventeen years and put to death thirteen convicts between July and his departure from the White House. This unprecedented series is not expected to continue, his successor Joe Biden having promised to work to abolish the federal death penalty.
