Virginia

It took Virginia 400 years to end the death penalty. It’s not a switch we can flip on and off. – Virginia Mercury

Published

2 years ago

February 6, 2024

Of all the things policymakers can be indecisive about, the death penalty shouldn’t be one of them. It is, after all, about the most profound and irreversible thing a government can do.

Yet this year, not three years after Virginia banned capital punishment, freshman Del. Tim Griffin, R-Bedford, submitted a bill to reinstate it. Mercifully, it was doomed from the outset in the Democratic-ruled House of Delegates. With all due allowances for naïveté, political posturing or whatever Griffin’s motivation, the death penalty isn’t a light switch you flip on and off.

It took Virginia more than 400 years to end capital punishment. When the General Assembly finally did it in 2021, there was even miniscule Republican buy-in on final votes that made Virginia the only former Confederate state to dismantle death row in favor of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the most heinous offenses.

Ours is among 23 states that have abolished the death penalty. Six others have halted executions by governors’ orders. Only five states executed people last year, and death sentences were imposed in just seven states, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

Things were once quite different. Until this century, Virginia was an enthusiastic death penalty backer and practitioner. Since Jamestown, Virginia has executed an estimated 1,300 people.

The U.S. Supreme Court halted capital punishment in the latter third of the 20th century after it found its disparate implementation unconstitutionally “cruel and unusual.” After the court reinstated it in 1976, Virginia executed 113 inmates, according to the DPIC. That ranks third behind Texas (586) and Oklahoma (123) — body counts that will soon grow.

Why did Kiki Webb have to die?

Just the suggestion that a candidate might not support killing people to prove that killing people is wrong was politically disqualifying. It was a common Republican tactic to force Democratic candidates in statewide general elections to pledge support for the death penalty, putting them at odds with many in their own base to remain viable with the broader electorate.

In this century, Republicans failed to notice that Virginia’s appetite for state-sanctioned killings was waning and had been for some time. Part of that is because of demographic changes, especially in the moderate, educated, affluent and fast-growing suburbs.

Another factor was a by-product of a hugely successful Republican initiative that George Allen brought to the governor’s office from his 1993 election landslide.

After the General Assembly overwhelmingly enacted Allen’s abolition of parole in 1994, it meant that an inmate sentenced to life in prison would actually spend the rest of his life in prison. For jurors, that assurance eased the moral crisis they felt when deciding whether to prescribe death for a person sitting steps away from them. Assured that the convict could never walk free again, jurors increasingly eschewed death sentences and the haunting knowledge that they played a role in taking someone’s life.

The numbers tell the story. After the court-ordered hiatus, it took a few years for new death penalty convictions to exhaust their federal and state appeals. Executions resumed in Virginia in 1982. For the rest of that decade, eight people perished in the state’s death chamber. During the 1990s, however, the decade parole was abolished, the total soared to 58. From 2000 through 2009, the total was cut in half, to just 28. And from 2010 through 2017, the year William Morva became the last convict executed in Virginia, it dropped to eight.

The ’90s were also the most robust decade for executions nationally, peaking with 98 in 1999, according to the DPIC.

Death penalty politics reached a significant political flashpoint in Virginia’s 2005 gubernatorial race between Democrat Tim Kaine, the lieutenant governor at the time and now a U.S. senator, and Republican Jerry Kilgore, who had been the state’s attorney general. In a Kilgore campaign ad, the grieving father of a murder victim claimed that Kaine, a lawyer who had defended a death penalty client and a Roman Catholic with a faith-based objection to the death penalty, would have spared Adolf Hitler from execution.

The ad was widely panned as a gratuitous, tone-deaf overreach, and it boomeranged on Kilgore’s campaign as it was already imploding. Kaine quickly aired a rebuttal in which he spoke directly into the camera and said that he would “carry out death sentences imposed by Virginia juries because that’s the law.”

And he did — 11 times from the day he took office in January 2006 through the end of his term four years later. The last to be executed under Kaine’s watch was John Allan Muhammad, convicted as one of the two snipers who terrorized Virginia, the District of Columbia and Maryland in 2002, shooting 10 people dead and injuring three.

Capital punishment is an emotional issue that almost evenly divides the nation. A 2023 Gallup poll showed that 50% of those surveyed said they felt the death penalty is unfairly applied compared to 47% who felt it was fairly applied.

Consider the obvious: Very few people of means go to death row. It’s a different story if you’re Black or poor. Of the 113 executed Virginia inmates, 52 of them — 46% — were Black, a ratio more than double the state’s Black population of 20%. For defendants who can’t afford skilled, experienced death-penalty litigators, the odds are even worse.

Is our criminal justice system so infallible that it should green-light actions as irrevocable as taking another person’s life? Hardly.

According to the DPIC, 196 people sentenced to death nationally since 1973 have been exonerated, including Virginia’s Earl Washington Jr., who was poor and Black. Washington, with an IQ of 69, spent 16 years incarcerated — nine on death row, once within days of being executed — because of false and misleading forensic evidence, woeful trial counsel and his own coerced confession. Gov. Doug Wilder commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in 1993. Gov. Jim Gilmore pardoned Washington in 2000 after DNA testing, not available at the time of his trial in 1984, exonerated him from the murder and rape for which he was convicted.

Griffin’s misbegotten bid to restore capital punishment foundered just before an Alabama execution underscored misgivings Americans increasingly harbor about terminal punishment more suited to despotic regimes.

Virginia abolished biased, inefficient, botched executions; more states should follow suit

Like many states unable to procure the drugs necessary to execute people by lethal injection, Alabama tested a novel way to kill: subjecting the condemned – strapped to a gurney – to pure nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen. Alabama’s attorney general called it “a textbook execution,” promised further hypoxia executions in Alabama and offered to tutor other states in its use.

Associated Press writer Kim Chandler, a witness to the execution, described something much more unnerving. For about two minutes, according to AP’s first-person account, condemned murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith shook and writhed violently, “in thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements,” the force of which “caused the gurney to visibly move at least once.”

There’s no way to inflict death on a confined, terrified human being that doesn’t horrify an ordinary person. That’s because no matter the method — an intravenous drip of lethal drugs, electrical voltage, a noose, a firing squad or nitrogen gas — the end result is a fresh corpse. Each is just as final, its victims just as eternally dead.

If those methods knot your stomach, then maybe our conversations should be about whether governments should execute people, not how.

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Virginia

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Virginia Tech’s 95-89 Loss to Wake Forest

Published

11 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Virginia Tech’s 95-89 Loss to Wake Forest

Virginia Tech’s ACC Tournament run ended in heartbreaking fashion Tuesday night in Charlotte, as the Hokies fell to Wake Forest 95-89 in overtime. It was a game full of swings. Virginia Tech erased deficits, battled back repeatedly and forced overtime, but couldn’t make enough plays in the extra period.

Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from the game.

The Good: Rebounding dominance and a resilient fight

Virginia Tech did plenty of things well in this game, especially on the boards.

The Hokies outrebounded Wake Forest 45-28, including 21 offensive rebounds, which created 20 second-chance points and repeatedly extended possessions. That advantage helped Virginia Tech stay within striking distance even when the offense stalled.

Head coach Mike Young pointed to the rebounding margin as one of the more frustrating parts of the loss.

“You outrebound somebody 45 to 26 or whatever that is,” Young said. “You’re supposed to win the game. Unfortunately, we did not.”

Several Hokies contributed to that effort. Forward Tobi Lawal led the team with nine rebounds. Centers Christian Gurdak and Antonio Dorn combined for 15 rebounds, with Dorn seeing extended minutes after Amani Hansberry was sidelined with an injury he suffered against Virginia.

Virginia Tech showed its usual resilience. The Hokies erased multiple deficits throughout the game and were able to force overtime in a game where Wake Forest led for almost 36 minutes.

Young praised the fight his team showed throughout the night.

“It’s been a characteristic of this team throughout,” said Young. “They’ve got a lot to them, and great kids to coach.”

The Bad: A quiet night for Neoklis Avdalas

Virginia Tech needed contributions across the lineup in a tight postseason game, but Neoklis Avdalas struggled to make an impact.

Avdalas finished with five points, shooting 2-for-8 from the field. The Hokies’ assist leader was unable to record an assist against the Demon Deacons. He played 31 minutes before spending the final 7:37 of the second half and all of overtime on the bench.

Young confirmed the decision was performance-based.

“I just thought [Jaden Schutt and Jailen Bedford] were playing better than Neo, so that is how it went,” said Young.

Schutt played his most minutes in a game (29) since late January. He shot 3-for-7 from three and made all six of his free throws, ending the night with 15 points.

This game stands in stark contrast to Avdalas’ previous showing against Wake Forest. In that game from Feb. 21, Avdalas scored 17 points, shooting 6-for-14 from the field. He also recorded eight assists and three rebounds that game.

The Ugly: Turnovers early and execution in overtime

THe biggest issue for Virginia Tech came in two stretches: the early turnovers and in overtime.

The Hokies committed 10 turnovers in the first half, allowing Wake Forest to control the pace despite Virginia Tech’s 25-11 first-half rebounding advantage. Off those 10 first-half turnovers, Wake Forest scored 11 points.

“We had some terrible, terrible turnovers,” said Young.

Although Virginia Tech cleaned that up in the second half, only committing three turnovers for the remainder of the game, the early miscues forced the Hokies to play from behind most of the night.

After battling abck all night, overtime is where the Hokies ran out of answers.

Wake Forest quickly seized momentum in the extra period. Guard Myles Colvin gave the Demon Deacons a five-point advantage less than a minute into overtime, making a floater and a three.

The Hokies struggled to generate offense in overtime while Wake Forest capitalized repeatedly at the free-throw line. When Virginia Tech was forced to foul down late, Wake Forest did not allow any chance of a comeback, making all nine of its free throws in overtime.

“They were hitting shots,” Ben Hammond said. “Their point guard had the game of his life today.”

In the end, Wake Forest made the plays Virginia Tech could not.

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Virginia

Virginia lawmakers criticize anti-redistricting mailer with Jim Crow-era images – WTOP News

Published

23 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Virginia lawmakers criticize anti-redistricting mailer with Jim Crow-era images – WTOP News

The flyers encourage people to vote against the redistricting effort and feature pictures of the Ku Klux Klan and from the Civil Rights Movement.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones condemned flyers with Jim Crow-era images discouraging voters from supporting redistricting in the state.

The mailers, which Jones told WTOP he first learned about last weekend, featured pictures of the Ku Klux Klan and from the Civil Rights Movement. One such mailer said, “Our ancestors fought to represent us. Now Richmond politicians are trying to take our districts away.”

The flyers encourage people to vote against the redistricting effort.

A group, Justice for Democracy, has been sending out mailers and texts with some clear dog whistles, using varying disclaimers in Virginia (“Democracy and Justice PAC” and “Justice for Democracy PAC”).
Its treasurer is listed as Christopher Woodfin and its address is the same … pic.twitter.com/JvetyKGnbw
— Matt Royer (@royermattw) March 7, 2026

Early voting is underway, as Democrats in the state push for changes to congressional districts that are expected to give them more of an advantage in Congress. They said it’s in response to President Donald Trump encouraging redistricting in Republican-led states such as Texas. Republicans, though, have been critical.

In an interview with WTOP, Jones, Virginia’s first Black attorney general, said the mailers are disturbing, shocking, offensive and deceptive.

“It’s very clear a MAGA-linked group that opposes the referendum is sending these mailers to Black voters, and they’re misusing very, very hurtful imagery from the Civil Rights Movement, even invoking Jim Crow, to weaponize one of the darkest chapters in our history, to scare people into voting no and help Republicans maintain a rigged map for 2026 so they can keep control of Congress,” Jones said.

In a statement, the NAACP Virginia State Conference said the flyers falsely compare redistricting to Jim Crow.

“While the NAACP is nonpartisan, we are deeply engaged in political advocacy to safeguard our communities,” said Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of NAACP Virginia.

The purpose of the mailers, Jones said, is to “suppress the vote. It’s to make sure that people don’t go make their voices heard during this election.”

The flyers said they’re paid for by a group called Democracy and Justice PAC. Former Virginia Del. A.C. Cordoza, a Republican, is listed as the chairman, according to Virginia Board of Elections documents.

“I couldn’t see why they say it’s insulting,” Cordoza told WTOP. “I’m a Black man. I don’t want my Black vote to be taken away.”

The proposed new map, Cordoza said, “ripped apart majority-minority districts in order to increase the number of white representatives from Northern Virginia.”

Cordoza said he didn’t know how many homes the mailers had been sent to or how much the PAC spent on them.

“I want people to do their research and see exactly what’s happening,” Cordoza said. “We, as Virginians, voted for a bipartisan redistricting commission for a reason.”

Jones, though, said he sits “across the dinner table from people who have had their right to vote denied because of the color of their skin. It’s 2026. I would hope that we’d be past tactics like this, but clearly we aren’t.”

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Virginia

Gov. Spanberger leads Virginia public safety readiness briefing

Published

1 day ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Gov. Spanberger leads Virginia public safety readiness briefing

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger met with public safety leaders from across the commonwealth Monday as part of a “unified readiness” coordination effort.

The governor met with police and fire chiefs, sheriffs, emergency managers and private sector members — including Dominion Energy — to discuss Virginia’s commitment to public safety, intelligence sharing and interagency collaboration.

“As global tensions continue to evolve, I want to be very clear: there are no known threats specific to Virginia at this time,” Spanberger said. “Today’s briefing was about making sure that information can be shared quickly and we remain at the ready.”

The meeting relates to Spanberger’s Executive Order 12, which she says reaffirms Virginia’s commitment to public safety, community trust, and readiness.

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