VADP

Executions (since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, Virginia resumed executions on August 10, 1982):
105 killed

Currently under sentence of death in VA: 14 (13 Males, 1 Female)

Exonerations: 1 (Earl Washington, Jr.)

Natural Deaths: 2

Suicides: 4

§ 18.2-31. Capital murder defined; punishment.

The following offenses shall constitute capital murder, punishable as a Class 1 felony:

1. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of abduction, as defined in § 18.2-48, when such abduction was committed with the intent to extort money or a pecuniary benefit or with the intent to defile the victim of such abduction;

2. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another for hire;

3. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by a prisoner confined in a state or local correctional facility as defined in § 53.1-1, or while in the custody of an employee thereof;

4. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of robbery or attempted robbery;

5. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of, or subsequent to, rape or attempted rape, forcible sodomy or attempted forcible sodomy or object sexual penetration;

6. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a law-enforcement officer as defined in § 9.1-101 or any law-enforcement officer of another state or the United States having the power to arrest for a felony under the laws of such state or the United States, when such killing is for the purpose of interfering with the performance of his official duties;

7. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of more than one person as a part of the same act or transaction;

8. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of more than one person within a three-year period;

9. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of or attempted commission of a violation of § 18.2-248, involving a Schedule I or II controlled substance, when such killing is for the purpose of furthering the commission or attempted commission of such violation;

10. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another pursuant to the direction or order of one who is engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise as defined in subsection I of § 18.2-248;

11. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a pregnant woman by one who knows that the woman is pregnant and has the intent to cause the involuntary termination of the woman's pregnancy without a live birth;

12. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a person under the age of fourteen by a person age twenty-one or older;

13. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another in the commission of or attempted commission of an act of terrorism as defined in § 18.2-46.4;

14. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a justice of the Supreme Court, a judge of the Court of Appeals, a judge of a circuit court or district court, a retired judge sitting by designation or under temporary recall, or a substitute judge appointed under § 16.1-69.9:1 when the killing is for the purpose of interfering with his official duties as a judge; and

15. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any witness in a criminal case after a subpoena has been issued for such witness by the court, the clerk, or an attorney, when the killing is for the purpose of interfering with the person's duties in such case.

If any one or more subsections, sentences, or parts of this section shall be judged unconstitutional or invalid, such adjudication shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remaining provisions thereof but shall be confined in its operation to the specific provisions so held unconstitutional or invalid.

(Code 1950, §§ 18.1-21, 53-291; 1960, c. 358; 1962, c. 42; 1966, c. 300; 1970, c. 648; 1973, c. 403; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1976, c. 503; 1977, c. 478; 1979, c. 582; 1980, c. 221; 1981, c. 607; 1982, c. 636; 1983, c. 175; 1985, c. 428; 1988, c. 550; 1989, c. 527; 1990, c. 746; 1991, c. 232; 1995, c. 340; 1996, cc. 876, 959; 1997, cc. 235, 313, 514, 709; 1998, c. 887; 2002, cc. 588, 623; 2007, cc. 844, 845, 846.)

Once a jury finds a person guilty of capital murder, it then holds a second trial to determine whether the crime was vile enough to warrant the death penalty and/or whether the person represents a future danger so great he must be executed.

A circuit judge then formally imposes the sentence. The conviction then enters the appeals stage, which involves a number of possibilities.

Appeals Process

Restrictions: Virginia law sets these restrictions on the appeals process:

Contemporaneous Objection Rule: This rule bars lawyers from raising objections on appeal, if they were not brought up during the original trial.

Preservation of Evidence: The circuit court is under no obligation to preserve evidence from trials once they have concluded. In most cases, the evidence is destroyed. This evidence is crucial later when appeals lawyers are fighting for the condemned man's life, especially if the evidence can prove innocence.

If the defendant raises a particular issue at trial but not on state appeal, then that claim cannot be raised in federal court later.

Automatic review: The case must be reviewed by the Virginia Supreme Court. That decision may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

State habeas corpus petition: A death-row inmate may then file a state habeas corpus petition with the Virginia Supreme Court. A habeas corpus petition is a civil action challenging a criminal conviction as unconstitutional. That, too, may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Federal habeas corpus petition: If the state habeas petition fails, the inmate then may file a federal habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court.

Panel of 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Any decision reached in U.S. District Court may be appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Full 4th Circuit: The decision of a three-judge panel on the 4th Circuit can then be appealed to the entire court.

U.S. Supreme Court: That decision can then be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

History of the death penalty in Virginia

• Virginia introduced the death penalty to the "New World" by hanging George Kendall in the early 1600's
• Virginia has carried out over 1,300 executions in its history, more than any other state.
• Virginia has executed more women and the youngest children of any state in the nation.
• Between October of 1908 and March of 1962, Virginia used the electric chair to execute 236 people. 201 of those were black males, 34 were white males; one, Virginia Christian, was a 17-year-old black female. During that period, the youngest, Percy Ellis, was executed at the age of 16.
• In February of 1951, Virginia executed 8 men in a 72-hour period. All 8 men were black and 7 were executed for the rape of one white woman. These seven were known as the Martinsville Seven.
• Virginia's single year record for executions is 17 in 1909.

On June 29, 1972 in Furman v. Georgia the U. S. Supreme Court found the practice of the death penalty to be constitutionally unaccepatable, not because it considered killing criminals inherently cruel, but because it thought the penalty too arbitrary and capricious in it's implementation. The Court found the imposition of the death penalty by juries was frequently based on race or random luck.

On July 2, 1976 in Gregg v. Georgia the high court ruled that Georgia's new "guided discretion" laws for death penalty cases effectively removed the randomness from death sentencing. Other states followed suit to change their laws.

Post Furman

• Under the post-Furman laws, Virginia has become the 2nd most active killing state.
• Only Texas , with a far larger population, has executed more prisoners than Virginia.

Morris Mason, a young, black man from the Eastern Shore with a lifelong history of paranoid schizophrenia and a mental age of 8, was the first severely mentally handicapped prisoner executed by Virginia post Furman . Morris was killed on June 25, 1985.

During his term as Governor of Virginia, Douglas Wilder granted conditional pardons to Joe Giarratano and Earl Washington, Jr., who presented compelling evidence of innocence. Wilder commuted Herbert Bassette's death sentence to life due to reasonable doubt of his guilt. All 3 remain in prison and will likely die there. note: Earl Washington was exonerated and released by Gov. Jim Gilmore February 12, 2001

There is no right of appeal in Virginia except one automatic appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court (statistically the least likely to grant relief of all courts in the country) for death-sentenced prisoners.

In spite of its projected strong death penalty stance and draconian death penalty laws, repeated polls taken since 1989 continue to show that given an option, a healthy majority of Virginians prefer alternatives to the death penalty. Politicians continue to ignore these findings.

• According to independent statewide polls administered at Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech, an overwhelming majority oppose the death penalty when given the alternative of life with no possibility of parole for a minimum of 25 years, combined with restitution to victims' families.
• Since 1977, about 90% of all U.S. executions have been carried out in the south by Texas, Florida, Virginia, Louisiana and Georgia. Over 90% of those executed had court-appointed lawyers at their original trials.
• The death penalty costs 5 to 6 times more than life imprisonment, according to studies in a number of states. Most costs occur at trial level. Indiana, with a smaller death row than Virginia's, estimates it could save $5 million per year by abolishing capital punishment.
• The high cost does not assure that innocent men are not executed.
• A number of men, including Joe Giarratano, whose sentences were commuted by the Governor because of concerns that they might be innocent have been refused retrials to prove their innocence. As a result they will spend the rest of their lives in prison for crimes they may not have commited.
• The Supreme Court, the United Nations, and numerous independent studies have concluded that the death penalty has no effect on the crime rate. On average, the murder rate in U.S. states which execute is almost double the rate in states without the death penalty.

• Fact 1: Murder rates are lower in states that have abolished the death penalty.
• Fact 2: Innocent people can be executed.
• Fact 3: In the long run, the death penalty works against murder victims' families.
• Fact 4: The death penalty is arbitrary and racist.
• Fact 5: The death penalty costs more than life imprisonment.
• Fact 6: Every western democracy except the USA has abolished the death penalty.
• Fact 7: Using the death penalty prevents society from finding effective ways of reducing crime.
• Fact 8: Public opinion supports alternatives to the death penalty.