------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
Virginia 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. n - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
