House Democrats on Wednesday by a 6-2 vote killed a Republican proposal that would have reinstated the death penalty in Virginia.
The measure’s sponsor, Del. Tim Griffin, R-Bedford County, told a House Courts of Justice subcommittee that his House Bill 394 would only apply to “the worst of the worst” murder cases, and that it would have brought back an important tool for prosecutors to negotiate with capital offenders.
“That law that I am asking this committee to consider today is essentially the exact same law that we had a couple of years ago,” Griffin, an elections attorney and a former assistant prosecutor in Amherst and Bedford counties, told the panel.
“It’s not that anyone can be put to death under Virginia, it’s not even that any murderer can be put to death, and not even every first-degree murderer,” Griffin said. “It was just reserved for the worst of the worst, like murderers who commit rape, or murderers who committ robbery or who kill a police officer in the line of duty. That’s when you are eligible for the death penalty.”
Just two years ago, Virginia ranked third in the country with a total of 113 executions since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1976. But in 2021, when Democrats controlled both the legislative and executive branches, the commonwealth made history when it became the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty.
On March 24 that year, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed the repeal into law at the Greensville Correctional Center, which had housed Virginia’s death row. “It is a powerful thing to stand in the room where people have been put to death,” he said at the time. “And it reinforced [for] me that signing this new law is the right thing to do.”
Supporters of the repeal have repeatedly pointed out that the death penalty is unreliable and does not deter crime. Since 1973, 185 innocent people have been released from death row.
But Griffin argued before the committee on Wednesday that the commonwealth’s four capital defense offices, which opened in 2002, provided “the best legal representation in Virginia” for offenders charged with capital crimes.
“I know there is always concern that we don’t want to punish anyone who is innocent, right? That’s the number one thing that we hear when we’re talking about capital punishment,” Griffin said, adding that the capital defense offices provided the “best representation possible” in these cases. “They really did so much work, at taxpayers’ expense, mind you.”
Griffin said that after Virginia repealed the death penalty, many commonwealth’s attorneys felt like they “lost an important tool in their tool belt” when approaching capital cases.
“Because it used to be that they would sit down, and the person that was accused of murder would agree that they committed murder, and they were trying to figure out if there were terms that they could come to in a negotiation for a plea deal,” Griffin said. “But when we have taken away this tool, the prosecutors no longer have this as a tool in the tool belt when they are negotiating.”
Del. Phil Hernandez, D-Norfolk and a member of the committee, asked Griffin whether he had given any consideration to the racial disparities among offenders who received death sentences.
“If you look at the history of how this has been used, it seems pretty clear that African Americans and other folks of color are most proportionally facing the death penalty,” Hernandez said. “How would you respond to that, particularly given that mistakes are made sometimes, sometimes we do get it wrong?”
Griffin responded that due to Virginia’s much longer and more thorough jury selection process in capital cases when compared to other states, more safeguards are in place. “Those racial considerations are at the very core of the decision-making where they actually get to talk to jurors one on one,” he said. “You don’t get that at any other time during the jury selection in the commonwealth of Virginia.”
But Hernandez kept pressing the issue. “You’re not disputing the fact that racial minorities are disproportionately sentenced to the death penalty?” he asked again.
“Certainly I never did that. If you have something that I should look at, I’d be happy to look at it,” Griffin said.
Representatives from several civic organizations pleaded with the committee to reject Griffin’s proposal.
“We’ve been a long-standing supporter of death penalty repeal, we were very pleased to see the repeal during the 2021 session, and there are many reasons for our stance. And we would urge you to continue to retain the current law and to oppose this bill,” said Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference.
Rob Poggenklass, executive director of Justice Forward Virginia and a board member of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said that the repeal of capital punishment was “a long time coming” in Virginia. “We’re glad that the death penalty has been abolished, and we hope it stays that way,” he said.
And Kenneth Hunter with the Virginia Justice Alliance argued that Griffin’s unawareness of disproportionate sentencing of racial minorities in capital cases should disqualify him from carrying legislation that would reinstate the death penalty.
“If one has not taken the opportunity to look at the racial disparities in sentencing, there’s no way you can have a real bill about this,” Hunter said. “You have to know about that before you even approach a subject like that.”