For decades, activists around the state and country have been fighting to abolish the death penalty in Virginia. In 2019, the issue rose to the forefront when Democrats won control of the Virginia General Assembly.
On Friday, the House of Delegates voted 57-41 to end the death penalty, with three Republicans joining all the Dems in support of the monumental legislation. Two days before, the state senate approved a similar abolition bill with a 21-17 party-line vote.
While certain details still need to be ironed out, Governor Ralph Northam has promised to sign the final bill into law this summer, which will make Virginia the first Southern state to ban capital punishment. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Virginia has executed 113 people, the second most of any state (after Texas’ 569).
Michael Stone, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, says the group is “extremely pleased” with the new legislation. “Not only will it abolish the death penalty, but it will change the sentences of the two men still on death row from death to life in prison without parole.”
During a heated debate, Democratic legislators emphasized how abolishing the death penalty is a racial justice issue. Almost half of the people Virginia has executed have been Black, although only 20 percent of the state’s population is Black. And since 1973, more than half of the 167 people on death row who’ve been exonerated across the country have been Black.
For me, revenge, a death for a death, was not ever going to be what justice looks like.
Linell Patterson, family member of murder victims
For VADP member Linell Patterson, this end to the decades-long battle is a healing moment.
After her father and stepmother were brutally murdered by her adopted brother, Michael Bourgeois, and his friend, Landon May, in Pennsylvania in 2001, the prosecuting attorney sought the death penalty against May, even though Patterson and her sister begged him not to.
“For me, revenge, a death for a death, was not ever going to be what justice looks like,” says Patterson, who now lives in Harrisonburg. “It’s really uplifting to think that Virginia is moving away from a system that has failed so many demographics.”
In 2017, when Virginia executed William Mora, who murdered Montgomery County Sheriff’s Corporal Eric Sutphin in Blacksburg in 2006, Sutphin’s daughter, Rachel, also did not feel any solace—just more pain.
“Having this bill passed, finally I think something good is coming,” says Sutphin, who has become an outspoken voice against the death penalty since her father’s murder.
As someone who has represented many people charged with capital offenses, attorney Matthew Engle says he is filled with a range of emotions.
“It’s an enormous relief to see that [the penalty] is no longer going to be a concern,” he says. “But I also feel sad about some of the cases I worked on over the years of people who were executed…It really was a waste of human life.”
Once the bill is signed into law, all four advocates hope to see other Southern states follow Virginia’s lead, and join the 22 other states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have abolished the death penalty.
Patterson ultimately hopes that abolition will lead to a greater investment in support systems for crime victims and their families, like therapy and restitution, as well as in programs and services that prevent violence.
“There’s a lot of opportunity at this point to redistribute all of that money that was being poured into the system,” she says. “It’s exciting to think about what it actually means to restrengthen individuals, families, and communities after trauma.”
