Lawmakers may be on the verge of eliminating the death penalty in Virginia.
Rarely is a vote in the General Assembly a matter of life or death the way it is right now for two people currently on death row in Virginia. For them, the debate over ending capital punishment isn't an academic discussion or a political debate.
"An executive death sentence absolutely guarantees the killer will never kill again," Michelle Dermyer told a Senate committee Monday. Dermyer is the widow of a Virginia State Police trooper who was murdered in 2016. "It is imperative that Virginia continues to allow the death penalty as an option for those families who make a decision to seek it as justice for their loved ones death."
Virginia has used the death penalty longer than any other state, a tradition that stretches back to colonial days. But in recent years, several other states have ditched the death penalty and Virginia may be next. Critics say it's too expensive, doesn't act as a deterrent and is used disproportionately against Black people.
"For 25 years I've been walking into courtrooms and purporting to have dignified discussions about whether or not we should make one of the other people in the room stop breathing," said Doug Ramseur from the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Ramseur specializes in capital murder cases. He's asking lawmakers to put him out of business. "There's no denying that it's racist and values white lives over Black ones, and it has the potential to execute innocent people and it's just plain unnecessary," he testified.
Much of the opposition to eliminating the death penalty comes from people connected to the law-enforcement community. They say criminals who kill officers deserve to be put to death.
Former Republican Senator Bill Carrico spent many years as a State Police trooper, and he's urging lawmakers to keep capital punishment. "The death penalty is reserved for the most pathological most heinous crimes that are committed against people, and when they commit these crimes they commit them against you and I. They commit them against law abiding people," Carrico argued.
Senator Scott Surovell is a Democrat from Fairfax County who introduced the bill to ditch the death penalty. He says having capital punishment on the books to keep people from killing officers doesn't work. "Anybody who's dumb enough to take a shot at a law enforcement officers is probably asking to be killed. I mean, you're going up against someone who's armed, and the idea that having a death penalty on the books is going to deter someone who's that stupid or reckless or craven doesn't hold water."
The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday, but it's not heading to the Senate floor just yet. First it's going to the Senate Finance Committee, where senators will weigh the budgetary impacts of imprisoning people indefinitely versus going through all the legal steps necessary before an inmate is executed.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
