FRANK GREEN
Richmond Times-Dispatch
There were nights when satellite trucks crowded the asphalt in front of the Greensville Correctional Center. Generators hummed and reporters did stand-ups washed in brilliant light.
Scores of cameras were aimed at a portable lectern where officials announced the times of death and last words of inmates whose still warm bodies were headed for the medical examinerâs office in Richmond to be autopsied and recorded as homicides.
Candle-carrying protesters gathered in the rural darkness in a field several hundred yards from the prison in Jarratt. Their prayers and vigils completed, they packed up for long rides home vowing to return the next time.
Abolition of the death penalty will end an institution once part of the fabric of Virginia
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By FRANK GREEN | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Gov. Ralph Northam will be introducing a bill to abolish the death penalty that, if successful, would make Virginia the first Southern state to end capital punishment.
âI understand about timing and I suspect this is the year to end the death penalty in Virginia,â Northam told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Tuesday.
âIâve felt strongly about this for a long time,â the governor said. âWeâve been doing so much good work on equity, especially criminal justice reform, and we have the majority in the House and the Senate.â
Although abolition bills have been introduced in the General Assembly frequently in recent decades, this appears to be the first time one will be introduced by a governor. This yearâs regular session begins Wednesday.