To the dismay of Catholic advocacy groups, a Senate committee
has killed a bill to restrict capital punishment in Virginia.
The Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted 10-3 Jan. 28 to
“pass by indefinitely” Senate Bill 1296, sponsored by Sen.
Donald McEachin, D-Richmond. The bill would have allowed the
death sentence only when the conviction was supported by DNA
or other biological evidence or when a video “conclusively
connects the defendant to the offense” – for example, with a
“voluntary interrogation and confession.”
The next day,
members of the two Catholic dioceses of Virginia – Arlington
and Richmond ¬ – gathered in the capital city for
Catholic Advocacy Day, an annual summit addressing key
issues before the General Assembly.
Measures to reform Virginia’s death penalty have come before
the assembly over the last several years, but none have made
it out of committee hearings. This year’s bill would have
made DNA evidence or a filmed confession requirements for
instituting the death penalty, precautions aimed at
eliminating the risk of executing innocent people.
Since 1973, 150 people have been exonerated from death row
nationwide, sometimes due to withheld evidence being revealed
or investigation of the crime scene revisited. Virginia has
exonerated one in that time, but approved clemency for
another eight inmates.
The state’s procedure for issuing a death sentence has come
under scrutiny from advocacy groups such as Virginians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The organization says
capital punishment is unfair because of racial bias, problems
with evidence and other issues.
Michael Stone, executive director of the group, saw
McEachin’s bill “as a symbolic measure that we hope will open
up a dialog among legislators.”
“There was no real hope of getting the bill through this
session because of the political makeup of the assembly, but
the fact that it was introduced to the committee by McEachin
is still a good sign for us,” Stone said. “SB 1296 was an
attempt to move Virginia to where Maryland was before it
abolished the death penalty.”
In 2013, according to deathpenaltyinfo.org, a
bill came before the assembly that would “require secrecy
around the methods and carrying out of executions,” which was
not passed, and similarly in 2012, HB502 (Gilbert, R-Page)
would have held “non-shooters” to be eligible for the death
penalty if they were ruled to be “an accessory to murder and
exhibited an intent to kill.”
Virginia was the first state in America to execute an
offender. Capt. George Kendall was put to death in the
Jamestown colony in 1608 after being found guilty of spying
for Spain.
Although Virginia has not carried out an execution since
2013, it is second only to Texas in the number of executions
that have been carried out.
With a firmly pro-life stance, the VCC is morally opposed to
the death penalty and advocates for compromise, such as life
in prison without the possibility of parole for those who are
found guilty of heinous crimes. Other priorities include
preventing wrongful convictions, restoring voting rights to
non-violent felons, expanding Medicaid (the health insurance
program for low-income families), passing the Virginia DREAM
act (which would allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state
tuition to attend college in Virginia) and closing the
“gun-show loophole,” which exempts private firearms sales
from criminal background checks.
Find out more
To learn more about the death penalty state by state, go to
deathpenaltyinfo.org. For
more information on the 2015 Virginia General Assembly
session, including bill tracking, go to lis.virginia.gov and richmondsunlight.org.
