Virginian kills quicker
Ashcroft picks state to try serial suspects
By Phil Wilayto
Richmond, Va.
It came as no great surprise when U.S. Attorney General John
Ashcroft announced that Virginia would be the first
jurisdiction to try sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and
John Lee Malvo.
The two are charged or suspected in a string of shootings
across the country that left 14 people dead and seven wounded.
Where they would be tried first was Ashcroft's call, because
the suspects were in federal custody. Ashcroft made no bones
about his criteria: whichever jurisdiction could execute them
the fastest.
Virginia won, hands down.
"Virginia, of all the jurisdictions, is the place where we
have a death penalty statute that has stood the test of time,"
argued Fairfax County's Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan
Jr., who was hand-picked by Ashcroft to prosecute Muhammad.
Horan knows his statutes. Virginia has the shortest delay
between sentencing and execution, the most insurmountable
appeal process and is quite willing to put minors to death--an
important consideration in this case, since Malvo is only
17.
In fact, after Texas, Virginia has executed more people than
any other state. When considered on a per capita basis, it has
executed more than Texas.
Then again, Virginia has had more death penalty experience
than any other state.
According to Michael H. Reggio's "History of the Death
Penalty" (PBS Web site), the first legal execution of a
convicted criminal in the English North American colonies took
place in 1622 in Virginia.
And, as befitting the state that developed the modern-day
system of chattel slavery, the vast majority of Virginia's
death penalty victims have been of African descent -- more than
85 percent of the 236 people executed here before the U.S.
Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in
1972. This, in a state where today only one in five residents
is Black.
In April of 2000, the American Civil Liberties Union
released a 40-page report examining the death penalty in
Virginia since the ban on executions was lifted in 1977. Among
its findings:
* Race remains "a controlling factor" in the way the death
penalty is administered. For example, Black people convicted of
killing whites are "significantly more likely to be sentenced
to death" than whites who kill Blacks.
* Virginia "still has no enforceable means of ensuring that
competent lawyers are appointed to represent indigent capital
defendants." That's important, since 97 percent of those
sentenced to death could not afford their own lawyers.
* The Virginia Supreme Court has reversed fewer death
sentences than any other state supreme court, and has never
granted a petition for habeas corpus in a capital case.
* In recent years, the state has "repeatedly set national
records for speedy executions."
Southern Christian Leadership Conference President Dr.
Joseph E. Lowery once noted that, "By reserving the death
penalty for Black defendants, or for the poor, or for those
convicted of killing white persons, we perpetuate the ugly
legacy of slavery--teaching our children that some lives are
inherently less precious than others."
That pretty much sums up the use of the death penalty in
Virginia.
Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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