Virginia is going to be the 23rd American state to eliminate the death penalty, and it will be the 1st state in the South where death penalties are highly performed all across the United States. Gov. Ralph Northam has approved a law to ban executions.
The legislature of the Democratic-controlled state voted in Feb to oppose the executions, and Gov Northam mentioned the death penalty as ‘inhumane and called the terrible use of our resources.
Executions excessively affected Black Americans
The Commonwealth has performed 113 death penalties since the Supreme Court maintained the legal status of executions in 1976. Moreover, the execution in Virginia even looks to have excessively impacted the Black American community, around half of the people who faced death penalties were Black.
The prisoners of the state have been facing executions for around four-hundred years. The state is marked as the first US state which has executed the highest number of people when compared to other American states. Furthermore, the state Democrats have pushed to restrict the death penalty for many years, and now here is a chance that Democrats have entire control in the state.
Source: Web
Currently, two prisoners are in line for the execution in the state, but luckily both will have their death penalties changed to life in jail without bail after the law is approved.
Who is the primary critic?
Republican Todd Gilbert, Virginia House Minority Leader criticized that Democrats have not demonstrated even a little bit of worry for victims of crime.
According to the DPIC (Death Penalty Information Center), there is a notable number (1,390) of death penalties executed in the history of Virginia.
Donald Trump, former President of the United States, ordered his administration to continue federal death penalties in 2019, but no federal death penalties had been executed since 2003. Moreover, Donald Trump’s administration has carried out thirteen death penalties. On the other hand, President Joe Biden has described that he would struggle to eliminate the federal death penalty but didn’t set a timeline.
