Post by marion on Jul 6, 2006 4:17:49 GMT -5
Virginia leads in executing the condemned
State carries out 65%
Media General News Service
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Texas has executed more inmates. But in the modern era of capital punishment, no state comes close to Virginia in carrying out death sentences once they have been imposed.
Through the end of 2004, Virginia had executed 65 percent of the 144 people sentenced to death in the state. The next closest state, Missouri, executed 35 percent. The national average is 12.5 percent, according to available federal figures.
J. Tucker Martin, spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, attributed Virginia's success rate to the state's capital-murder law and criminal-justice system.
"Because the capital-murder statute is narrow, the commonwealth has a very small number of inmates on death row at any given time," Martin said. That, "combined with the outstanding lawyers trying them, leads to a high percentage rate of execution."
A study by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia in 2000, however, alleged that the death penalty in Virginia has been marked by unfair trials, poor representation of defendants and limited appeals-court review of convictions and sentences.
And studies by the Columbia Law School and Virginia's Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission found that strict adherence to procedural rules limiting the review of capital cases by federal courts and the Virginia Supreme Court might have let stand the convictions of people who did not get fair trials.
The most recent figures from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics show that just 7.6 percent of Virginia death sentences were overturned from 1973, when states resumed imposing death sentences, until the end of 2004. Nationally, the average is 34.5 percent.
- Frank Green
State carries out 65%
Media General News Service
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Texas has executed more inmates. But in the modern era of capital punishment, no state comes close to Virginia in carrying out death sentences once they have been imposed.
Through the end of 2004, Virginia had executed 65 percent of the 144 people sentenced to death in the state. The next closest state, Missouri, executed 35 percent. The national average is 12.5 percent, according to available federal figures.
J. Tucker Martin, spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, attributed Virginia's success rate to the state's capital-murder law and criminal-justice system.
"Because the capital-murder statute is narrow, the commonwealth has a very small number of inmates on death row at any given time," Martin said. That, "combined with the outstanding lawyers trying them, leads to a high percentage rate of execution."
A study by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia in 2000, however, alleged that the death penalty in Virginia has been marked by unfair trials, poor representation of defendants and limited appeals-court review of convictions and sentences.
And studies by the Columbia Law School and Virginia's Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission found that strict adherence to procedural rules limiting the review of capital cases by federal courts and the Virginia Supreme Court might have let stand the convictions of people who did not get fair trials.
The most recent figures from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics show that just 7.6 percent of Virginia death sentences were overturned from 1973, when states resumed imposing death sentences, until the end of 2004. Nationally, the average is 34.5 percent.
- Frank Green