Governor Ralph Northam to sign landmark legislation abolishing the death penalty wydaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wydaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Recent votes in the Virginia General Assembly saw the Senate vote in favor of abolishing capital punishment (21-17) and the House of Delegates voting in favor of repealing the death penalty and replacing it with a sentence of life without parole (57-41).
All that remains is for Gov. Ralph Northam to sign the bill into law, which would make Virginia the first southern state to ban the death penalty.
“The practice is fundamentally inequitable,” Northam said in a prepared statement on Feb. 3. “It is inhumane. It is ineffective. And we know that in some cases, people on death row have been found innocent.”