Virginia Senate Passes Bill To Abolish Death Penalty

RICHMOND, VA — The Virginia Senate voted Wednesday to abolish the death penalty in a state that has executed more people than any other. The bill passed by a 21-to-17 margin, with Senate Republicans opposing the bill.

Observers now expect the House version of the bill to easily clear that chamber, and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has said he supports the legislation.

“I cannot think of anything that is more awful, unspeakable and wrong for a government to do than to use its power to execute somebody who didn’t commit the crime they’re accused of. The problem with capital punishment is that once it’s inflicted you can’t take it back, it can’t be corrected,” state Sen. Scott Surovell (D-36th), the bill’s sponsor, said as he introduced it.

Northam welcomed the passage of the bill, SB 1165.

“Virginia has executed more people than any other state,” he said Wednesday in a statement. “The practice is fundamentally inequitable. It is inhumane. It is ineffective. And we know that in some cases, people on death row have been found innocent.”

If the bill passes the House and gets signed into law, Virginia will join 22 other states to abolish the death penalty and will become the first state in the South to ban executions.

The House of Delegates is considering a companion bill to abolish the death penalty, sponsored by Del. Mike Mullin (D-93rd). The bill advanced out of committee Wednesday, but the full body has not yet voted on it.

The move by Virginia contrasts with Republican-controlled states where the death penalty remains popular. It also differs from the practices of the federal government during President Donald Trump’s presidency.

Trump was the country's most prolific execution president in more than a century, overseeing the execution of 13 death row inmates since July 2020.

Since the federal death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, executions carried out by the federal government in the U.S. were rare until Trump’s presidency. Before Trump took office in 2017, only three federal executions had taken place in this period.

Starting from the Colonial period, Virginia has executed 1,390 people. Texas ranks second with 1,322 executions followed by 1,130 executions in New York.

From 1972 to 1976, the death penalty was suspended in the United States. Since 1976, Texas has executed 569 people, the most in the nation by a large margin. During this 45-year period, Virginia ranks second with 113 executions followed by Oklahoma with 112 executions.