By Samuel Strom, J.D. | Legally reviewed by FindLaw Staff | Last reviewed December 05, 2024
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In 2021, the Commonwealth of Virginia abolished capital punishment, also known as the death penalty. When Gov. Ralph Northam signed the bill into law, Virginia became the 23rd state to abolish death sentences and the first southern state of the former Confederacy to do so.
Virginia has perhaps the most tumultuous history of the death penalty of any state in America. As the Death Penalty Information Center notes, the state executed 73% of its death row inmates between 1976 and 2017. The national average execution rate during that time was 16%. The historical background section below contains more information on this statistic and the history of Virginia's death row.
The most severe sentence for a criminal conviction in Virginia is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The chart below summarizes the basics of Virginia's capital punishment laws. For more articles and resources, see FindLaw's Death Penalty section.
| Code section | None |
|---|---|
| Is capital punishment allowed? | No |
Note: Legislatures often repeal and amend state laws. Contact a Virginia criminal defense attorney or conduct your own legal research to verify the state laws you are researching. If someone has charged you with a serious crime, work with your public defender or contact a criminal defense attorney to protect your rights.
The area we know today as Virginia was the location of the first known execution in Colonial times. The execution took place in Jamestown, Virginia. The Jamestown Colony executed Captain George Kendall in 1608 for treason. He was allegedly a Spanish spy.
In 1612, the governor of Virginia instituted the Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws. These laws imposed the death penalty for many offenses, such as:
Until the early 20th Century, Virginia executed most people by hanging. Around that time, the state switched to electrocutions as its preferred execution method. The state first used the electric chair in 1908 at a correctional facility in Richmond, Virginia. The Death Penalty Information Center notes that the state last executed a person by hanging in 1909.
One of the most infamous executions in American history happened in Virginia in 1951. The state arrested seven black men for the alleged rape of a white woman in 1949. The Death Penalty Information Center notes that "[a]fter giving coerced confessions, the men were convicted and sentenced to death by all-white male juries in perfunctory trials that lasted less than one day each."
The state executed five of the seven men on Feb. 2, 1951, and the other two on Feb. 5, 1951. The men became known as the Martinsville Seven.
As the Death Penalty Information Center says, "The Martinsville 7 case illustrates Virginia's historically discriminatory use of the death penalty. From 1900 until the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1977 for crimes in which no one was killed, Virginia executed 73 Black defendants for rape, attempted, or armed robbery that did not result in death, while no White defendants were executed for those crimes."
In 2021, Gov. Ralph Northam granted posthumous pardons to the Martinsville Seven. He said that although the pardons did "not address whether the men were guilty," they served "'as recognition from the Commonwealth' that they were tried without adequate due process."
The modern era of the death penalty is the time after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Gregg v. Georgia (1976). In that case, the Court said that the death penalty did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. So, it did not violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Court's decision in Gregg lifted a four-year moratorium on the death penalty in the United States. The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia subsequently modified its death penalty laws to follow the Court's ruling.
In 1994, lawmakers introduced a bill that gave death row inmates a choice of execution methods between the electric chair and lethal injection. A 1994 executive order gave victims' families the right to attend executions.
In 1998, the state moved its men's death row to the Sussex I State Prison. The Virginia Department of Corrections' execution chamber is at the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, Virginia.
In 2002, police arrested John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo for a series of shootings in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. The Death Penalty Information Center notes that their trials happened in Virginia "in part, because Virginia allowed the execution of juveniles," and Malvo was 17 when he committed the crimes. The state executed Muhammad in 2009. Malvo got a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
As noted above, Northam signed a bill in March 2021 abolishing the death penalty in Virginia. The American Bar Association notes that by doing so, Virginia became "the 23rd state, and the first in the South, to eliminate capital punishment entirely."
Northam signed the bill a month earlier after the House and the Senate passed death penalty abolition bills. The bill had the effect of turning the state's 15 capital offenses into aggravated murder, punishable by a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The last person executed in Virginia was William Morva in 2017. Virginia ranks third in total executions performed since 1980, behind only Oklahoma and Texas. From 1608 to 2017, Virginia executed a total of 1,390 people, the most of any state.
For more information about Virginia laws and the death penalty, browse the following links:
For more information about the history of the death penalty in American history, read FindLaw's Death Penalty in the U.S. article. The article covers everything from the early history of the death penalty to U.S. Supreme Court cases that changed how states could implement capital punishment laws.
If you or a loved one face criminal charges in Virginia, contact a criminal defense attorney in your area. An experienced criminal defense lawyer can provide you with critical legal information that could make or break your case. Along with specific legal advice, an attorney can provide information about the following:
Do not delay in contacting a criminal defense attorney if the government has charged you with a crime.
Contact a qualified attorney.
Get tailored advice and ask your legal questions. Many Virginia attorneys offer free consultations.
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