Ending Death Penalty In Virginia Historic Step Toward Fairer Criminal Legal System - Group
Muhammad Irfan Published March 25, 2021 | 12:10 AM
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2021) The abolition of the capital penalty in Virginia is a historic step toward racial healing and a fairer criminal legal system, Robert Dunham, the Executive Director of The Death Penalty Information Center said, as the capital punishment in the state was finally axed.
On Wednesday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill that abolished the death penalty, making Virginia, which has used capital punishment more than any other state, the 23rd US state to abolish the death penalty. Northam had a symbolic tour in the death chamber at the Greensville Correction Center, after which he signed the bill.
"In the modern era, it [Virginia] has executed a greater proportion of those it condemned than has any other state. Its abolition of a policy long steeped in racism, with the support of every statewide elected official, is an important and historic step towards racial healing and a fairer criminal legal system," Dunham said.
Dunham recalled that between 1900 and 1977, the year the US supreme court banned offenses that did not result in death, the state executed 73 Black men on charges of robbery, rape or attempted rape.
No white man was executed for the same offenses back then.
"The symbolic value of a legislature sitting in the former capital of the Confederacy dismantling this tool of racial oppression cannot be overstated," Dunham stated.
Overall, some 1,400 people have been executed in Virginia since the colonial era. In modern times the state is the second on the list of states performing death penalties, following only Texas.
"Virginia's abolition of capital punishment is tremendously significant, both in terms of the death penalty's continuing nationwide decline and as a historical marker of race relations in the United States. No state that has relied so heavily on capital punishment has ever before repealed its death penalty," Dunham said.
In the wake of the signing of the bill, the state authorities will commute the sentences of the two inmates on death row to life without parole.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
HEC reviews curricula for environmental sciences degree programme
ICC Asia looking forward to an action-packed Asia Cricket Week
Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Ambassador
Greece hands Olympic flame to 2024 Paris Games hosts
Two Kyiv hospitals evacuating over feared Russian strikes
World must act on neurotech revolution, say experts
Charles & Catherine's cancer diagnoses
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
King Charles to resume some public duties during cancer treatment: palace
US defense chief announces $6 bn in security aid for Ukraine
Heavy rains cause damage to Spezand-Taftan railway track
Woman stabbed in Israel, attacker killed: police
More Stories From World
-
Plastics pollution may be solved without production cap: Canada minister
7 minutes ago -
Biden stalls on menthol cigarette ban fearing Black vote backlash
17 minutes ago -
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
17 minutes ago -
6,000 French police to welcome Olympic torch amid bonus boost
37 minutes ago -
Taiwan hit by several quakes, strongest reaching 6.1-magnitude
56 minutes ago -
'Ballistic' Bairstow stars as Punjab pull off record T20 chase
57 minutes ago
-
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - 2nd update
57 minutes ago -
Junta-led Burkina Faso suspends BBC, Voice of America for two weeks
2 hours ago -
Two Kyiv hospitals evacuating over feared Russian strikes
2 hours ago -
World must act on neurotech revolution, say experts
2 hours ago -
Charles & Catherine's cancer diagnoses
3 hours ago -
King Charles to resume some public duties during cancer treatment: palace
2 hours ago