Feb 27, 2021
Virginia’s legislature has moved to ban the death penalty, a popular action in some quarters. Before Gov. Ralph Northam signs the bill into law, he should think about three victims: Debbie Dudley Davis, Susan Hellams and Susan Tucker.
The three along with two other women were raped and killed by Timothy Wilson Spencer, a serial killer who became known as the Southside Strangler. And there’s no doubt he was the first defendant in U.S. history convicted on the basis of DNA evidence. In a sense, he himself made the case that he murdered these women.
Spencer was executed in Virginia’s electric chair in 1994, seven years after the crimes. Do you want to be the person who says Spencer should have lived? Just 25 at the time of the first killing, he would not be 60 years old today.