RICHMOND, VA (AP) – State lawmakers passed legislation Monday that will end the death penalty in Virginia, a dramatic change for a state that has executed more people in its long history than any other.
Legislation repealing the death penalty is now aimed at Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who has said he will sign it into law, making Virginia the 23rd state to stop executions.
“He has realized that it is time to end this obsolete practice that tends to do more harm to the victims’ family members than to provide us with any consolation or consolation, ”said Rachel Sutphin, whose father , Cpl. Eric Sutphin, was fatally shot in 2006 while working in the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
William Morva, the man convicted of the murder of Eric Sutphin, was executed in 2017. Two years later, Rachel Sutphin was one of 13 members of the family of murder victims who sent a letter to the Assembly General to ask legislators to abolish the death penalty.
“By voting for abolition, we are showing the way, if yes Virginia, the state with more history and more people executed, if we can do it, so can other states,” Rachel Sutphin said.
Virginia’s new Democratic majority, which fully controlled the General Assembly for a second year, pushed for the repeal effort, arguing that the death penalty has been disproportionately applied to people of color, the mentally ill, and the destitute.
“It is vital that our criminal justice system works fairly and punishes people fairly. We all know that the death penalty doesn’t. It’s unfair, ineffective and inhumane, ”House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn and Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw said in a joint statement after the vote.
Republicans expressed concerns about justice for the victims and their families and said there are some crimes that are so heinous that the perpetrators deserve to be executed.
Only two men remain on the runway of Virginia’s death. Anthony Juniper was sentenced to death in the 2004 murders of his ex-girlfriend, two of his children and his brother. Thomas Porter was sentenced to death for the murder of a Norfolk police officer in 2005. Repeal legislation would convert his sentences to life imprisonment without parole.
During a virtual debate in the House on Monday, Republican Del Rob described these killings in horrific detail and said Porter and Juniper would watch the vote from prison with special interest.
“We have five dead Virginians that this bill will ensure that their killers do not receive justice,” Bell said.
Porter, Juniper and their families have declined to comment through their attorney, Rob Lee, executive director of the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center.
“By eliminating the death penalty, government, political and moral leaders have taken action that has long been necessary to make Virginia a fairer and fairer Commonwealth,” Lee said in a statement.
The passage of the legislation was the latest in a long list of radical political changes enacted by Democrats, which have been increasingly reformed. the Old Dominion towards an atypical value in the south on racial, social and economic issues.
Last year, lawmakers passed some of the region’s strictest gun laws, broader LGBTQ protections, its higher minimum wage, and some of the loosest abortion restrictions. This year, too, lawmakers have been taking one step at a time.
But the death penalty bill marks a particularly strong reversal in a state where executions have taken place in the past decade with both Republican governors and Democrats. The state legislature and state officials have also acted in recent years to preserve Virginia’s ability to carry out executions and limit transparency around the process.
Even last year, the death penalty abolition bills in the General Assembly went nowhere.
On Monday, both houses passed separate but identical repeal bills. The Senate passed a House bill, which put it ahead in Northam with a 22-16 vote. Republican Sen. Jill Vogel joined Democrats in the House to vote on the bill. On Monday, House Democrats and two Republican Party members, Del. Jeff Campbell and Del. Carrie Coyner, voted to approve the Senate version, 57-43.
According to her spokesperson, no date has yet been set for the governor’s signature.
Historically, Virginia has used the death penalty more than any other state, executing about 1,400 people since its days as a colony, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Virginia, with 113 executions, is only second in Texas.
Michael Stone, executive director of Virginians for alternatives to the death penalty, considered the vote to abolish the death penalty to be an iconic moment in state history.
“We hope Virginia will be an example for other states in the former Confederacy to take this bold step toward human reform of our legal justice system,” Stone said.