VA Gov Northam to introduce bill to eliminate death penalty

[The Blue Flower]

https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/gov-northam-will-introduce-bill-to-end-death-penalty-in-virginia/article_920c1b1c-390b-593d-91a2-711ff6571632.html#utm_source=richmond.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fdaily-headlines&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_content=c75c1a35bb1c222a208a97c7a35599e9659b3a71

Gov. Ralph Northam will be introducing a bill to abolish the death penalty that, if successful, would make Virginia the first Southern state to end capital punishment. “I understand about timing and I suspect this is the year to end the death penalty in Virginia,” Northam told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Tuesday.

“I’ve felt strongly about this for a long time,” the governor said. “We’ve been doing so much good work on equity, especially criminal justice reform, and we have the majority in the House and the Senate.” Although abolition bills have been introduced in the General Assembly frequently in recent decades, this appears to be the first time one will be introduced by a governor. This year’s regular session begins Wednesday. Virginia has conducted 113 executions since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976, a toll second in the country only to Texas with 570. Since 1608, there have been nearly 1,300 executions in Virginia, the most in the country.

113 people have been executed in Virginia since 1982; however, no one has been sentenced to death in Virginia since 2011, or executed since 2017. And the state’s death row, which once hovered around 50, is now down to two men, both sentenced to death in Norfolk, who will have their sentences changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole if the bill becomes law. Northam has said that while he opposes the death penalty, he was prepared to uphold Virginia’s laws including capital punishment. But he said Tuesday that at this stage in their appeals, neither man would be facing execution during his term.
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U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., wrote in a text message Tuesday: “Since Virginia has been a leader in executions, abolishing the death penalty here will also send a powerful abolition message across the country and world.” Kaine, a former governor, said he strongly supports Northam’s effort to end capital punishment in the state. “I am trying to do the same at the federal level. We don’t need the death penalty to fight crime. Instead, the death penalty has been applied in a manifestly racist way throughout our history,” Kaine wrote.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Make sure there to file charges against Trump first if there is anything first.

Then abolish it. But personally, it needs to be there for the worse of the worst.

[FSogol]

2. Ending the death penaltly is the right thing to do. n/t