The Virginia Death Penalty

Virginia, both in state and modern history, is a highly prolific executioner. In 1608 the Jamestown colony performed America’s first execution. From 1608 to 1976 Virginia executed 1277 people. From 1982 to its last execution in July 2017, Virginia executed 113 people.

Virginia has killed more prisoners than any other state, and in 1951 made history by executing 5 prisoners in one day.

The last person to die at the hands of the state was William Charles Morva for the crimes of killing a police officer and a security guard. The execution of Morva was controversial, and generated international pleas for mercy.

While being held in a county jail for one year awaiting trial for attempted robbery, his mental health deteriorated. Morva was known for being an eccentric survivalist who walked barefoot in the forest and ate raw meat and pine cones. The young man’s defense maintained he was severally mentally ill, psychotic, and suffering from a serious delusional disorder, and the jury was unable to understand the severity of  his illness. Unmedicated he was not able to properly participate in his defense.

Rachel Sutphin, the daughter of one of the murder victims supported clemency for Morva, and asked Governor Terry McAuliffe to spare his life. In a statement she said that, “I have fought and will continue to fight for clemency for all death row inmates until Virginia declares the death penalty unconstitutional.”

The execution process in Virginia is known to be expedited, and the Virginia Supreme Court has a reputation for resolving appeals very quickly.  The average time from sentencing to death in the state is 7 years.

In recent years Virginia juries have been reluctant to sentence a prisoner to death. As a result, an interesting thing has happened in the state, the death row population has dwindled to 5 prisoners. (By comparison in 1995 the death row population was 57.)

There are a few reasons to account for the refusal to condemn prisoners to death.

• Improved representation from regional capital defense resource centers.
• Juries are told that a life sentence means a life sentence without parole

Brandon L. Garrett explores the trends of the declining death penalty in his book End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice.

Garrett denounces the death penalty as a failed experiment. He says of the penalty, “States have tried everything to try to save the death penalty from itself, but the bias, both racial and geographic, is too ingrained. Lawmakers have tried to speed up executions, but have instead seen more delays and botched executions. They have tried to insist on higher-quality proof, and have still seen exonerations of innocent death row inmates.”

The death penalty in Virginia is dying, based on the will of the people. Let Governor Ralph Northam know your thoughts on Virginia’s use of the death penalty.

Emailhttps://www.governor.virginia.gov/constituent-services/communicating-with-the-governors-office/

Write
Governor Ralph Northam
The Way Ahead
P.O. Box 1475
Richmond, VA 23218

Phone804-786-2211

Facebook
@GovernorVA

Tweet
@GovernorVA

 

 

 

The Utah Death Penalty

Not all death row prisoners are executed against their will. Some prisoners opt to drop all of their appeals and become “volunteers.”

One of the most infamous of these volunteers is Gary Gilmore of Utah. A notorious volunteer, he was executed by firing squad in 1977. His was the first execution after the United States Supreme Court reinstated the penalty after a brief repeal.

Gilmore was  immortalized in Norman Mailer’s sprawling epic, The Executioner’s Song, was portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones in a television adaptation of his life story, and was featured in a Saturday Night Live sketch titled, Let’s kill Gary Gilmore for Christmas.

If it weren’t for the death penalty, Gary Gilmore would not be nationally and internationally known. The death penalty can arguably be seen as giving lasting infamy to a criminal, or making them a martyr for their cause, or an out for a prisoner who wants to escape a life sentence of incarceration.

Death row prisoners last words and last meals are recorded for history. For people unopposed to the death penalty, or unconvinced by the argument that killing is wrong no matter who does it, or that believe it is possible to commit an act that cancels out the possibility of any further compassion, hopefully this argument will give pause.

In state and modern history, comparatively, Utah does not execute heavily. Before 1976 Utah executed 43 prisoners. Since the execution of Gary Gilmore, Utah has executed 6 prisoners. Nine prisoners are currently on death row.

The methods of execution in Utah are the firing squad, and lethal injection.

In March 2018 an effort to abolish the death penalty was unsuccessful. In 2016 an abolishment bill was unable to reach the House floor.

A 2012 study estimated that the cost of a death penalty conviction was $1.6 million dollars more expensive than a life sentence without parole.

Governor Gary Herbert has said of the death penalty, “I’ve been a strong supporter for the death penalty for those most egregious and heinous of crimes. That being said, I think that the court system itself has made it so it’s a little bit harder to defend the death penalty. It takes so long. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Add your voice to the debate! Let Governor Gary Herbert know that you support the repeal of the death penalty in Utah and nationwide!

The Office of Governor Gary R. Herbert
350 North State Street, Suite 200
PO Box 142220
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-2220

Phone: 801-538-1000
 Toll Free: 800-705-2464

Tweet @GovHerbert

Facebook @GovGaryHerbert

 

 

 

The Texas Death Penalty

Ask anybody to guess which US State executes the most people, and they will probably name Texas. That is true in modern history, but hasn’t always been the case.

Before 1976, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina all had more executions than Texas. New York state led that time period with 1277 executions compared to Texas’s 755.

From 1982 to its last execution in July 2018, Texas has executed 553 prisoners. In comparison, the second top state for executions, Virginia, executed 113 prisoners, and the third state, Oklahoma, executed 112 prisoners, the fourth, Florida, executed 96 prisoners, and the fifth, Missouri, executed 88 prisoners.

There are now 243 prisoners on the state’s death row, including 6 women.

Harris County, Texas, was infamous for being responsible for executing 126 people, or almost 25% of all executions in the entire state. That changed when the county elected the reformed minded prosecutor Kim Ogg in 2016.

DA Ogg has said of the death penalty, “With other sentencing options and with an increased knowledge of science and technology, Americans feel responsible as jurors in a way they didn’t in the past because there’s more information to be considered. So I think attitudes toward the death penalty are changing.”

There have been several controversial cases in Texas of executions of people that are considered by many to be innocent.

Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted and executed for the arson deaths of his 3 young daughters, with now discredited science, in a house fire that many experts believe was accidental.

Columbia Law School students have set forth a case that Carlos DeLuna was executed in 1989 in a case of mistaken identity.

In October 2017 Texas executed 38-year-old Robert Pruett. Pruett was sentenced to 99 years in prison at the age of 15 for a murder his father committed, and sentenced to death at age 20 for the murder of a prison guard.

Author Cara H. Drinan said of the case, “We failed Robert Pruett in not addressing his childhood poverty, abuse and neglect; we failed Robert Pruett in treating him as if he’d been as culpable as his adult father when he was 15; and we failed Robert Pruett by immersing him in a culture of prison violence at 16. We can and must do better by our children, even when they commit a crime.”

Texas has a controversial law of parties, where a person can be executed when they are not responsible for an actual killing. In the case of Jeff Wood, he was sentenced to death, for sitting in a truck while his friend robbed and killed a convenience store clerk. A jury ruled that Wood should have anticipated the murder, but he maintained he didn’t know his friend was armed or planned to commit robbery.

Texas and Oregon are the only two states where the jury is compelled to speculate on “future dangerousness.” A study found that of 155 Texas cases experts were wrong 95% of the time in predicting the future danger of a defendant.

There are many flaws and areas of concern in the Texas death penalty. Let Governor Greg Abbott know your thoughts!

Even if the system was without flaw, it takes more strength to be merciful. A government that kills its own people is brutalizing. In the 21st century how can killing be done to show that killing is wrong?

Write Governor Greg Abbott

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Phone, email, and contact Governor Abbott at

https://gov.texas.gov/contact

 

  

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Tennessee

Nashville, the famed city of country music, is also the home of the state’s execution chamber.

The 2007 execution of Philip Workman resulted in the unexpected gift of free pizza for the homeless. For his last meal Workman asked that vegetarian pizza be donated to any homeless people near the prison, but the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution refused the request. In response local homeless shelters were flooded with donated vegetarian pizza on the day of his execution.

Before 1976, Tennessee executed 335 prisoners. Tennessee executed 6 prisoners between 2000 and 2009. The current death row population is 62.

In 1838 according to the Death Penalty Information Center, Tennessee became the first state to do away with mandatory death sentences for murder convictions.

The death penalty was abolished in 1915, but reinstated 4 years later.

In 1965 an effort to abolish the death penalty was defeated by one vote. In response Governor  Frank Clement gave clemency to every prisoner on death row.

While the Southern state has shown signs of being progressive in the past, that might not be the case with the current governor.

In 2014, Governor Bill Haslam signed a law allowing Tennessee to use the electric chair if the state can no longer find lethal injection drugs.

In the 1990’s it was thought that the Supreme Court would find the electric chair unconstitutional after a condemned man’s hair caught on fire.

The governor of Tennessee is the sole person who can grant clemency to a prisoner facing death. Governor Haslam has said that when the time comes he will consult with experts and pray.

The time will come on August 9, when Governor Haslam will decide the fate of Billy Ray Irick, the first execution he will face as governor, and the first scheduled execution in Tennessee in almost a decade.

Let Governor Haslam know your feelings about the death penalty, and let him know that it is in his power to not participate in the machinery of death.

WRITE

1st Floor, State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243

EMAIL

https://www.tn.gov/governor/contact-us.html

PHONE

(615) 741-2001

FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/pg/TeamHaslam/about/

TWEET @BillHaslam

South Dakota

With a population under one million, South Dakota does not have a history of executing large numbers of prisoners.

The state abolished the penalty for the first time in 1915.

To highlight the Old West style of justice executions can represent, the first person executed by the state of South Dakota was the man who killed Wild Bill Hickok in 1877.

From 1877 to 1913 the state executed 14 prisoners all by hanging. There was one execution by electric chair in 1947. From 2007 to 2012 there were 3 executions all by lethal injection.

There are currently 3 prisoners on South Dakota’s death row.

One prisoner Charles Rhines is fighting his sentence because he believes he was sent to his death by a homophobic jury. 

Spark a dialogue for change! Let your government representative know how you feel about South Dakota’s  use of the death penalty.

For more information support South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty at https://www.sdadp.org/#home