Capital punishment in Virginia

The first recorded execution in the United States took place in 1608 at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. Captain George Kendall was executed for treason.[2] 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 gibbeted, four pirates were hanged in chains in 1720, and a female slave was burned in 1737. From 1910 until 1994, the electric chair was used for all executions.

On February 2, 1951, four African Americans (of the Martinsville Seven) 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.[3] The case of the Martinsville Seven led to scrutiny of racial bias in death penalties for rape in Virginia. Only Black men were executed for rape, de jure through the end of the Civil War, and de facto since the introduction of the electric chair.[4] The last execution for rape took place on February 17, 1961.

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.

John Allen Muhammad during his time in the military

After the Supreme Court of the United States 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 individual executed by the state in the modern era.

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 decision was made. Seven inmates have since opted for the Virginia electric chair; the most recent was Robert Gleason on January 16, 2013. Former Governor Tim Kaine has also stated that he opposes the option of the electric chair, but did not move to drop it as an option while in office.

Executions are carried out at Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, Virginia; the men's death row is located at the Sussex I State Prison near Waverly, Virginia and the women's death row is at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women.[5] The execution chamber moved from the former Virginia State Penitentiary to Greensville in 1991.[6] On August 3, 1998, the male death row moved from Mecklenburg Correctional Center to Sussex I.[7]

In 1992, Roger Keith Coleman was executed by the state for the 1981 rape and murder of his sister-in-law Wanda McCoy. Coleman's case drew national and worldwide attention before and after his execution because of his repeated claims of innocence: Time magazine featured Coleman on its May 18, 1992, cover. After his death, his was the second case nationally in which DNA evidence was analyzed of an executed man. In January 2006, Virginia Governor Mark Warner announced that testing of DNA evidence had conclusively proven that Coleman was guilty of the crime.[8] On November 10, 2009, Virginia executed spree killer John Allen Muhammad for the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks during which he killed 10 people. He was tried in Virginia rather than the District of Columbia in order to establish an impartial jury pool, and his death sentence was finalized in six years.[9]

The most recent person to be sentenced to death in Virginia was Mark E. Lawlor, sentenced June 23, 2011 by the Honorable Randy I. Bellows of Fairfax County Circuit Court. In 2020 however, Lawlor won a federal appeal which required a retrial of the sentencing phase, and the new commonwealth attorney chose to reduce the sentence to life in prison without parole citing their personal beliefs regarding capital punishment.[10]

In January 2021, members of the Virginia General Assembly introduced companion bills to abolish the death penalty and convert existing capital sentences to life sentences without parole. Governor Ralph Northam said he would sign the bill if it passes.[11] Only two people are currently on death row in Virginia: Anthony Juniper and Thomas A. Porter.[12] The last execution in Virginia occurred in July of 2017, when William Charles Morva was executed for two murders he committed in 2006. The daughter of one of his victims supported the bill to end capital punishment, calling the practice outdated, ineffective, and failing to provide her any closure.[13]

When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.

In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial).[16]

Virginia is the state with the shortest time on average between death sentence and execution (less than 8 years).

The governor has the power of clemency with respect to death sentences.[17]

The method of execution is lethal injection, unless the condemned requests electrocution instead.[18]

Since Governor George Allen signed an executive order on the matter in 1994, relatives of the victim(s) in the case have the right to witness the execution. Relatives of the condemned inmate are barred from being present.

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.

Murder is the only crime for which one may be executed in Virginia. Under Virginia Criminal Code, capital murder is defined as "willful, deliberate, and premeditated" killing involving at least one of the following aggravating factors:[19]

1. Be committed in the commission of abduction, when such abduction was committed with the intent to extort money or a pecuniary benefit or with the intent to defile the victim of such abduction;
2. Be committed for hire;
3. Be committed by a prisoner confined in a state or local correctional facility, or while in the custody of an employee thereof;
4. Be committed in the commission of robbery or attempted robbery;
5. Be committed in the commission of, or subsequent to, rape or attempted rape, forcible sodomy or attempted forcible sodomy or object sexual penetration;
6. Be committed against a law-enforcement officer, even of another state or of the federal government, when such killing is for the purpose of interfering with the performance of his official duties;
7. Be committed against more than one person as a part of the same act or transaction;
8. Be committed against more than one person within a three-year period;
9. Be committed in the commission of or attempted commission of drug trafficking;
10. Be committed pursuant to the direction or order of one who is engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise;
11. Be committed against a pregnant woman by one who knows that the woman is pregnant and has the intent to cause the involuntary termination of the woman's pregnancy without a live birth;
12. Be committed against a person under the age of 14 by a person age 21 or older;
13. Be committed in the commission of or attempted commission of an act of terrorism;
14. Be committed against a justice or judge when the killing is for the purpose of interfering with his official duties;
15. Be committed against a witness in a criminal case for the purpose of interfering with the person's duties in such case.