Bill banning death penalty heads to Virginia governor

Source: Washington Post

RICHMOND — A bill to abolish the death penalty in Virginia won final approval in the state Senate on Monday and will be sent to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who is expected to sign it. Virginia — historically one of the nation’s most prolific death-penalty states — would then become the first in the South to abandon the ultimate punishment.

The state Senate approved by a vote of 22-16 a House bill that bans executions and establishes a maximum punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole. A judge would have discretion to suspend part of that sentence — a sticking point for some Republicans, who pushed unsuccessfully to make life without parole a mandatory minimum.

An identical Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), is making its way through the House — although now that the House bill was approved by both chambers, the Senate version does not need to pass the House for the legislation to become law. Del. Michael P. Mullin (D-Newport News), a prosecutor for the city of Hampton, carried the House version.

Virginia has imposed capital punishment since colonial times, ahead of the rest of the nation. Since a spy for Spain was executed in Jamestown Colony in 1608, 1,390 people have been put to death in the state, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-death-penalty-ban/2021/02/22/742eed3e-7146-11eb-93be-c10813e358a2_story.html