By Janet Post
March 1, 2021
Virginia will become the 23rd state, and the first in the South, to vote to eliminate the death penalty. The state Senate repealed it Feb. 3. Gov. Ralph Northam has said he will sign the bill into law.
The legislature is still deciding whether those sentenced to life in prison under the new bill will be eligible for parole. Virginia had executed a higher percentage of death-row prisoners than any other state, the Death Penalty Information Center reported.
Opposition to the death penalty is growing among working people, and the number of state legislatures barring it has grown. Across the country there are still more than 2,500 working people on death row. Fifty of those are federal prisoners incarcerated at the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex in Indiana, where all federal executions take place.