Capital punishment in Virginia
Encyclopedia
Capital punishment
is legal in the U.S. State
of Virginia
. In what is now the Commonwealth of Virginia, the first execution in the future United States was carried out in 1608. It was the first of 1,384 executions, the highest total of any state in the Union. For a full list of those executed since 1976 see the list of individuals executed in Virginia.
ed, four pirates were hanged in chains in 1720, and a female slave was burned in 1737. From 1909 until 1994, the electric chair
was used for all but one execution (that of Joel Payne on April 9, 1909). On February 2, 1951, seven African American
s were executed for rape in one case and another was executed for murder in an unrelated case—the most executions held on a single day in Virginia. On February 5, 1951, the remaining three defendants in the rape case were executed. The youngest person to have been executed in Virginia was Percy Ellis, who at the age of 16 was electrocuted on March 15, 1916. Only two women, Virginia Christian
in 1912 and Teresa Lewis
in 2010, have been put to death by the state since it took over executions from the counties. The last execution for rape
took place on February 17,1961.
upheld Georgia's "guided discretion" laws in Gregg v. Georgia
, Virginia's laws were modified along the same lines. The first person executed after being sentenced to death under these laws was Frank Coppola
on August 10, 1982. He was the first of 107 individuals executed by the state, the second highest total post-Gregg behind Texas.
The electric chair continued to be solely used until 1994, when legislation was enacted giving inmates the choice of lethal injection
or the electric chair, with lethal injection the default method if no choice was made. Six inmates have since opted for the Virginia electric chair
; the most recent was Paul Warner Powell
March 18, 2010. Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has also stated that he opposes the option of the electric chair, but he did not move to drop it as an option while in office.
Executions are carried out at Greensville Correctional Center
in Jarratt, Virginia
, and death row is located at the Sussex State Prison near Waverly, Virginia
. State law specifies that at least six citizens who are not employees of the Department of Corrections must be present to serve as witnesses to the execution. Since Governor George Allen
signed an executive order on the matter in 1994, relatives of the homicide victim(s) in the case have the right to witness the execution. Relatives of the condemned inmate are barred from being present.
A legal precedent in the United States was created after the U.S. Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia
, . It ruled that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment
's ban on cruel and unusual punishment
s. Daryl Atkins had been involved in a murder and robbery. He was "mildly mentally retarded
" and had an IQ of 59. The ruling did stay the executions of several people on death row. Atkins was later judged to have an IQ of over 70 and remains on death row in Virginia.
As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime are constitutionally precluded from being executed.
without the possibility of parole, support for the death penalty dropped to 45.2%, with 50% supporting life without parole.
Before the 20th century, along with murder and rape, a variety of offenses could merit a death sentence:
As Attorney General, Governor Bob McDonnell
supported expanding the death penalty to participants in a homicide other than the "triggerman," and to those who kill a judge or a witness.
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
is legal in the U.S. State
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. In what is now the Commonwealth of Virginia, the first execution in the future United States was carried out in 1608. It was the first of 1,384 executions, the highest total of any state in the Union. For a full list of those executed since 1976 see the list of individuals executed in Virginia.
History
Hanging was the predominant method for executions before 1909. Other methods had been used during this time — three people convicted of piracy in 1700 were gibbetGibbet
A gibbet is a gallows-type structure from which the dead bodies of executed criminals were hung on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. In earlier times, up to the late 17th century, live gibbeting also took place, in which the criminal was placed alive in a metal cage...
ed, four pirates were hanged in chains in 1720, and a female slave was burned in 1737. From 1909 until 1994, the electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
was used for all but one execution (that of Joel Payne on April 9, 1909). On February 2, 1951, seven African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s were executed for rape in one case and another was executed for murder in an unrelated case—the most executions held on a single day in Virginia. On February 5, 1951, the remaining three defendants in the rape case were executed. The youngest person to have been executed in Virginia was Percy Ellis, who at the age of 16 was electrocuted on March 15, 1916. Only two women, Virginia Christian
Virginia Christian
Virginia Christian was the first female executed in the 20th century in the state of Virginia, and a juvenile offender executed in the United States. She was also the only female juvenile executed by electric chair and, to date, the last female executed in the electric chair by the Commonwealth of...
in 1912 and Teresa Lewis
Teresa Lewis
Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis was an American who was the only woman on death row in Virginia prior to her execution. She was sentenced to death by lethal injection for using sex and money to arrange for the murders of her husband and stepson in October 2002...
in 2010, have been put to death by the state since it took over executions from the counties. The last execution for rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
took place on February 17,1961.
Post-Gregg
After the Supreme Court of the United StatesSupreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
upheld Georgia's "guided discretion" laws in Gregg v. Georgia
Gregg v. Georgia
Gregg v. Georgia, Proffitt v. Florida, Jurek v. Texas, Woodson v. North Carolina, and Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 153 , reaffirmed the United States Supreme Court's acceptance of the use of the death penalty in the United States, upholding, in particular, the death sentence imposed on Troy Leon...
, Virginia's laws were modified along the same lines. The first person executed after being sentenced to death under these laws was Frank Coppola
Frank James Coppola
Frank James Coppola , was a police officer from Portsmouth, Virginia who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1978 capital murder of Muriel Hatchell, although he maintained his innocence until his execution...
on August 10, 1982. He was the first of 107 individuals executed by the state, the second highest total post-Gregg behind Texas.
The electric chair continued to be solely used until 1994, when legislation was enacted giving inmates the choice of lethal injection
Lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...
or the electric chair, with lethal injection the default method if no choice was made. Six inmates have since opted for the Virginia electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
; the most recent was Paul Warner Powell
Paul Warner Powell
Paul Warner Powell was a convicted murderer who was executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia via electric chair. He is currently the last person executed in the United States using this method.-Murder:...
March 18, 2010. Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has also stated that he opposes the option of the electric chair, but he did not move to drop it as an option while in office.
Executions are carried out at Greensville Correctional Center
Greensville Correctional Center
Greensville Correctional Center is a prison facility located in unincorporated Greensville County, Virginia, near Jarratt. It is operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections. Greensville houses the execution chamber used to carry out capital punishment by the Commonwealth of...
in Jarratt, Virginia
Jarratt, Virginia
Jarratt is a town in Greensville and Sussex counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 589 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.3 square miles , all land....
, and death row is located at the Sussex State Prison near Waverly, Virginia
Waverly, Virginia
Waverly is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,309 at the 2000 census.-History:Popular legend has it that William Mahone , builder of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad , and his cultured wife, Otelia Butler Mahone , traveled along the newly...
. State law specifies that at least six citizens who are not employees of the Department of Corrections must be present to serve as witnesses to the execution. Since Governor George Allen
George Allen (U.S. politician)
George Felix Allen is a former United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the son of former NFL head coach George Allen. Allen served Virginia in the state legislature, as the 67th Governor, and in both bodies of the U.S. Congress, winning election to the Senate in 2000...
signed an executive order on the matter in 1994, relatives of the homicide victim(s) in the case have the right to witness the execution. Relatives of the condemned inmate are barred from being present.
A legal precedent in the United States was created after the U.S. Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia
Atkins v. Virginia
Atkins v. Virginia, , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments.-The case:...
, . It ruled that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...
's ban on cruel and unusual punishment
Cruel and unusual punishment
Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person...
s. Daryl Atkins had been involved in a murder and robbery. He was "mildly mentally retarded
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
" and had an IQ of 59. The ruling did stay the executions of several people on death row. Atkins was later judged to have an IQ of over 70 and remains on death row in Virginia.
As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime are constitutionally precluded from being executed.
Public opinion
A 2001 poll of Virginians found that 69.5% supported the use of the death penalty, with 25.2% opposed. The same poll found that if given the option of life imprisonmentLife imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
without the possibility of parole, support for the death penalty dropped to 45.2%, with 50% supporting life without parole.
Capital offenses
Under Virginia's Criminal Code, the following offenses carry the possibility of death:- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder in the commission of abduction,
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder during a robbery or attempted robbery
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder by a person engaged in a continuing Criminal Drug Enterprise
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder in the commission of rape or attempted rape or sodomy, or attempted sodomy, or object sexual penetration
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder of a person under the age of 14 by a person over the age of 21
- Contract killingContract killingContract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder of a law enforcement officer
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder of more than one person (within a three year time frame)
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder of a pregnant woman
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder by an inmate while in a correctional facility.
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder committed during an act of terrorism.
- Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder of a judge, juror, or witness
Before the 20th century, along with murder and rape, a variety of offenses could merit a death sentence:
- TreasonTreasonIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
against Virginia, defined as "levying war against [the state], or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort, or establishing or causing to be established, without authority of the legislature, any government within its limits, separate from the existing government, holding or executing in such a usurped government, any office, place or appointment, swearing allegiance or professing fidelity to it, or resisting the execution of the laws under colour of authority derived from or protection afforded by it" - ArsonArsonArson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
- BurglaryBurglaryBurglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
- horse rustling
- RobberyRobberyRobbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
As Attorney General, Governor Bob McDonnell
Bob McDonnell
Robert Francis "Bob" McDonnell is an American politician who has been the 71st Governor of Virginia since January 2010. A former lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, McDonnell served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1993 to 2006 and served as Attorney General of Virginia from 2006...
supported expanding the death penalty to participants in a homicide other than the "triggerman," and to those who kill a judge or a witness.
External links
- Virginia death penalty information from Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
- Summaries of Recent Poll Findings from Death Penalty Information CenterDeath Penalty Information CenterThe Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization that focuses on disseminating studies and reports related to the death penalty by itself and others to the news media and general public...
- Discuss Capital Punishment in Virginia Discuss capital punishment in Virginia
- Virginia execution chamber and gurney
- Virginia electric chair
