Virginia Bans the Death Penalty

Virginia’s governor signed legislation banning the death penalty Wednesday, making the state the 23rd in the U.S. to do away with capital punishment. Virginia is the first among the former Confederate states to repeal the death penalty, notable especially because it has often ranked high among states for the number of prisoners put to death. In a statement, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam said of the new law, “It is the moral thing to do to end the death penalty in the Commonwealth of Virginia.” Northam signed the bill outside the Greensville Correctional Center, where the state has conducted executions in the past.