Virginia became the first southern US state to abolish the death penalty after Gov. Ralph Northam signed a law on Wednesday.
Virginia has carried out nearly 1,400 executions, more than any other US state, since its founding as a British colony in 1608.
The state also carried out the second-highest number of executions after Texas since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
“Signing this new law is the right thing to do,” Northam said at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia, which houses the state’s execution chamber.
“It is the moral thing to do to end the death penalty in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” he said. “The Virginia story, we have a lot to be proud of, but not the capital punishment story.”
Racial prejudice in the death penalty
Northam also described the use of the death penalty in his state as “fundamentally flawed” and racially prejudiced.
“Virginia came within days of executing innocent people, and black defendants have been disproportionately sentenced to death,” he said.
“We know that the system doesn’t always get it right,” he said. “We cannot give the maximum punishment without being 100 percent sure that we are right.”
Blacks accounted for 296 of the 377 inmates executed by the state for murder in the 20th century, Northam said.
He also cited studies that found that a defendant was three times more likely to be sentenced to death if the crime victim was white than if he was black.
‘Incompatible with human dignity’
The European Union welcomed the move to abolish capital punishment, saying it was the latest development in a growing trend.
“The death penalty is incompatible with human dignity and the right to life, constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment and has no proven deterrent effect,” the bloc said in a statement.
Virginia last executed a prisoner in 2017. Two men remain on the state’s death row and will have their sentences commuted to life in prison without parole.
Virginia joined 22 other states that have outlawed the death penalty, while three others (California, Oregon and Pennsylvania) have a moratorium on its use.
By contrast, the administration of former President Donald Trump resumed federal executions during his tenure and they killed 13 federal prisoners between July 2020 and his departure from the White House in January. It has also amended the rules on federal executions, allowing death by firing squads or poison gas.
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