Virginia Ends The Death Penalty
Virginia Ends The Death Penalty
Yesterday (or maybe the day before), Virginia Governor Ralph Northam overturned over 400 years of a death penalty. My state had the highest number of executions of any other, 1390, over those 400+ years. And now it is done. Good.
“Lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled House of Delegates and state Senate passed identical bills last month that would end death sentences and executions. There are two men on death row in the state. Their sentences will be converted to life without the possibility of parole.”
Governor Ralph Northam:
“The death penalty is fundamentally flawed. It is the moral thing to do to end (it).”
Soon to be surpassed.
“Since 1819, 1,325 people (all but nine of whom have been men) have been executed in Texas as of 27 March 2021.”
A burning question for me is whether one that is wrongly convicted for a capital crime is better off being executed than serving decades in prison with some slim chance that they might be exonerated by the Innocence Project. Our system of injustice has long had more than a single fatal flaw and that is not changing yet.
That said, then I do like seeing the change that is occurring here in VA, but we have yet barely scratched the surface of what really should be done.