Virginia is the 2nd state to have executed the most people following Texas since the punishment was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1976.
A federal moratorium was ended by former President Donald Trump, who resumed capital punishment on a federal level last year after 17 years.
AFTER decades of protests by various groups and sectors against the death penalty, a major US state has finally decided to abolish it.
Although Virginia is not the first southern US state to officially abolish the death penalty, Governor Ralph Northam takes pride that he was the one who signed into law a bill that ends capital punishment.
The leader claims the death penalty has had a history of racial disparities through the years, and now, the state has decided put a stop to it altogether.
Virginia is the 2nd state to have executed the most people following Texas since the punishment was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1976.
Since then, executions have taken place in many southern US states that make up the former slave-owning Confederacy.
While they have abolished capital punishment, there are still 27 states across the country who are authorized to carry it out while several have moratoriums against the same.
A federal moratorium was ended by former President Donald Trump, who resumed capital punishment on a federal level last year after 17 years.
Since then, approximately 13 people were put to death in just months and six of those were carried out after his defeat.
Meanwhile, during his campaign as president, Joe Biden vowed to put a stop to federal death penalty and encouraged states to follow suit. He has yet to address the issue now that he is already in office.
Virginia has used the death penalty almost 1,400 times since it was first put in place.
Democrats argued for its removal for years, claiming it hurt people of color, the mentally ill, and the poor.
In the bill, Northam noted that 296 of 377 people executed by the state in the 20th century were black. Now, the last two men in the death row, who were both black, will spend life in prison without parole instead.
While the US has yet to abolish capital punishment altogether, the United Nations once revealed that 170 of its 194 member states have abolished such practice and the US has constantly faced international criticism over their failure to do the same. (OM)
Tags: #foreign, #UnitedState, #Virginia, #deathpenalty