Army veteran David A. Runyon, convicted of being the hit man in a 2007 murder-for-hire slaying of a young Navy officer in Newport News. A jury in U.S. District Court in Norfolk sentenced Runyon to death in 2009. But in December 2020, a panel for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that the case be sent back to Norfolk for a hearing on whether one of Runyon’s trial attorneys was “ineffective” when he failed to fully explore Runyon’s brain damage at trial.
Newport News woman who hired hitman to kill husband featured on Deadly Women dailypress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailypress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
Correctional officers stand at the entrance to the Greensville Correctional Center Nov. 10, 2009 near Jarratt, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/TNS)
Since 1608, Virginia has executed more people than any other state. It may now abolish the death penalty.
But after more than 400 years, the state’s days of capital punishment may be numbered.
Though Virginia has executed more people than any other state since Colonial times, it’s been nearly four years since its last execution and 10 years since juries handed down the state’s last two death sentences.
There are only two inmates on Virginia’s death row both stemming from Norfolk cases down from a peak of 40 in 1998.
The first recorded public execution in Virginia took place at Jamestown in 1608, but legislation to end capital punishment recently passed two key Senate committees and stands a good chance at ultimate passage.