The Abolition Story: VADP’s Thirty-Year Journey By Dale M. Brumfield

On July 1, 2021, Virginia’s death penalty will be minutes-long trials, then rushed into execution, officially abolished, and like slavery, lynching, sometimes with no legal counsel, and for crimes and eugenics, dissolve as a dark chapter in the like highway robbery, attempted assault, or even Commonwealth’s history. scaring a white school girl. Virginia introduced the death Law officers and judges were more concerned penalty to Colonial America with preserving their version of the sanctity of in 1608, when Capt. George the courts than with protecting the rights of the Kendall was shot for treason. accused prisoner, and saw nothing improper about is Virginia’s these “rocket docket” trials which were utilized to longest continuing institution, placate looming lynch mobs. Platitudes such as executing 1,390 people over 413 “let the law take its course” were interpreted by years. That is more killings than angry mobs as dog-whistle for “we will do the Dale Brumfield any other state, including . lynching for you, legally.” Since the founding of Jamestown, Virginia has As recently as October executed 94 women, over twice as many as runner 12, 1984, the electric -up Massachusetts, and about one-fourth of all chair execution of female executions nationwide. Seventy-eight Linwood Briley proved women were Black, eleven were white, and the that toxic mob-driven remaining five are of unknown racial origins. racism still lingered Only three white women have been executed since decades later. Just the Revolutionary War: Susannah Brazier was before midnight a small group of volunteers hanged in 1774 and Mary Snodgrass in 1896 for gathered beside the Virginia State Penitentiary murdering a child. Teresa Lewis was executed by in the heart of Richmond for a candlelight prayer in 2010 in a -for-hire case. vigil. Meanwhile, a much larger mob that would have been as familiar in 1904 as in 1984 gathered During the 1790-1865 antebellum period, Virginia across the street, shouting racial epithets and executed about 736 slaves, accounting for roughly waving Confederate flags and homemade signs 86 percent of all slave executions nationwide. proclaiming racist slogans like “kill the n-word,” Sixteen juveniles were executed by Virginia “fry Briley fry,” and far, far worse. before they reached their eighteenth birthday, VADP Executive Director Michael Stone, then a including a slave named Rebecca, who was 11 or Catholic Diocese of Richmond staff member, still

12 years of age when she was hung in 1825. remembers the visceral impact of that event, During the Jim Crow era, Virginia used hangings, which he had been encouraged to attend by then the , as legal lynching. Mostly Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, a long-time prison young Black males were frequently convicted in reform and anti-death penalty advocate.

The Virginia Abolition Story — A VADP Special Report The Virginia Abolition Story

“Seeing the raw racism expressed by the large no possibility of parole, combined with some form crowd cheering the death of a Black man had a of restitution to murder victims’ families. profound impact on me and motivated my long “A part of that group … felt that the information opposition to capital punishment.” was enough to do something with,” says Henry Another vigil participant, Nancy Gowen, whose Heller, the first director of Virginians Against mother, Mary Gowen, had been raped and mur- State Killing (VASK). The organization was soon dered by the Briley gang, expressed an unusual renamed Virginians Against the Death Penalty, sentiment to a United Press International reporter: then later became Virginians for Alternatives to “I think it’s something wrong with our system,” the Death Penalty, or VADP. “We decided to she articulated as she eyed the raucous celebrants change the name from being ‘against’ to ‘for’ across the road … I don’t think to murder some- something,” Heller explains. one for a murder committed is the answer.” The 1990s was a frustrating decade. Prosecutors In the Fall of 1991, a small group assembled at the and legislators seemed consumed with killing and request of tough-as-nails abolitionist and death sometimes went to legally questionable lengths to row counselor Marie Deans, assure a death sentence. to discuss opposition to the Strong public support death penalty. Deans had drove Virginia to sentence moved to Virginia from South five to 10 people to death, Carolina eight years earlier to and execute up to 14 form the Virginia Coalition people each year. “The on Jails and Prisons, in part to death penalty seemed to improve conditions in the be in the news daily. And prisons and especially on I did my best to keep it . out there,” Heller recalls. Early efforts to abolish Virginia’s death penalty Popular support did not waver despite many date to 1928, when the Commonwealth’s first rushed sentences, executions, and the very real female Senator, Sarah Lee Fain, unsuccessfully possibilities of innocence of prisoners such as Jo- introduced the first abolition bill. After another seph O’Dell, and reports of the botched electrocu- failed effort in 1960, Virginia joined an unofficial tions of Frank Coppola and Wilbert Lee Evans. multi-state moratorium on capital punishment in “Americans do not give a hoot about killing 1962, when support dropped to an all-time low. people. They really don’t give a hoot about killing The 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Furman them fairly, either,” a frustrated Marie Deans v Georgia found the death penalty unconstitution- wrote in 1986. “As long as there is the appearance al, but in a 1976 case, Gregg v Georgia, the Court of fairness in the death penalty, they will accept reinstated capital punishment. With public opinion executions as a necessary evil.” for the death penalty climbing, Virginia resumed In the early 2000s, support for the death penalty executions in 1982. stalled at around 75 percent, but support for an Deans pointed out to the group that a Virginia alternative was increasing. “I’d get up in front Tech poll showed that while death penalty support of those legislative committees and wave these topped out at 75 percent, it decreased significantly findings at them,” Henry Heller recalls. “But in when given the option of life imprisonment with those days, only a few were interested.”

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Few Virginia legislators would introduce abolition before DNA evidence exonerated him. His near- bills, only to watch them die in committee. Heller execution is chronicled by Margaret Edds in her remained pragmatic in the face of these setbacks 2006 book, An Expendable Man. as he searched for common ground. Before the Earl Washington debacle, the death “I didn’t get disappointed when Frank Hargrove’s penalty “seemed to be a trusted, well-oiled bill in the House of Delegates, or Henry Marsh’s machine of death,” recalls long-time advocate bill in the Senate would never get out of commit- Debbie Simpson of her experiences at execution tee,” he recalls. “I was actually pushing for a vigils by the Greensville Correctional Center. “We moratorium bill as that sounded more palatable.” could determine nearly to the minute when the When Heller stepped down in 2002, Jack Payden body would be declared dead and then driven -Travers took the helm. “As the new executive away. That is when we, with lit candles, lined the director of VADP, I reached out to the chaplain at side of the road as a truck resembling a Schwan’s Sussex I State Prison and accompanied him on his delivery truck would drive the body away.” death row visits,” he says. “That was a short-lived Simpson recalls the most unsettling vigils were opportunity. When my name those where family members of the condemned became public in the media were also present, such as during the 2000 surrounding each execution, execution of Steve Roach, executed for a a new warden ended my murder he committed as a juvenile. visitation access to the men on As people lined up by the the row. I never was able to roadside, Roach’s young, return to those men in person, newly-widowed wife but we helped others to both stepped in beside her. write and visit with the men.” “I didn’t know what to Payden-Travers also recalls that his appointment say, I’d never been in a coincided with the DC Sniper court cases. “Their situation like that before trials were held consecutively in the Fall of 2003 … I only had words of sorrow and a need to say in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. I would that we didn’t do enough. I was so very sorry.” maintain a daily vigil in front of each courthouse In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the during the trials while living Monday through execution of those under the age of 18 at the time Friday at the Norfolk Catholic Worker.” of their crime was cruel and unusual punishment John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death, — too late for Steve Roach and many others. but his young accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, New death sentences plummeted after 2002 when received life without parole. Public support for the legislature created the Virginia Indigent the death penalty reportedly jumped from 68 to Defense Commission. Those accused of capital 77 percent after this case. crimes now had highly-qualified, full-time capital In 2006 Payden-Travers met Earl Washington Jr., defenders replacing often inadequate court- Virginia’s only death row exoneree, and provided appointed lawyers who were paid scale and some- support for the legal team that worked on his civil times fell asleep in court, showed up intoxicated, trial in Charlottesville. Washington was sentenced or failed to call defense witnesses. The playing to death on a wrongful conviction, spent 19 years field against prosecutors had finally been leveled. in prison, and was days away from execution

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“The abolition movement and VADP brought This bill was a good vehicle for educating state together some of the most caring, passionate and legislators about the problems still endemic with dedicated people I have ever met,” says Beth Virginia’s system of capital punishment. The Panilaitis, who served as Executive Director from effort was so successful that the Senate passed the 2008 to 2010 and as a Board member from 2011 bill in both the 2019 and 2020 legislative sessions. to 2016. “People came to abolition from different Unfortunately, the legislation was defeated both places – faith, racial justice, connections with years in the House of Delegates. those on death row – and were willing to make The abolition of the death penalty in 2021 – sacrifices to help others.” the thirtieth anniversary of VADP – was the Advocates met with legislators, convergence of several key factors. The police held execution vigils, and orga- murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Black nized gatherings to speak about Lives Matter movement shone a bright spotlight the death penalty. “That’s how on racial inequities in the criminal justice system. VADP survived with little fund- The superb work of abolition bill patrons – Sen. ing and a good deal of opposition Scott Surovell and of Del. Mike Mullin – was key … the optimism and faith of within the General Assembly. The support for those volunteers and activists.” abolition by Governor Ralph Northam in his State Over the years, VADP and its allies opposed of the Commonwealth address was also crucial. legislation that expanded the crimes eligible for “I was stunned, saddened, capital sentences and bills that shrouded the and uplifted when news source of lethal execution drugs in secrecy. reached me that our legisla- Michael Stone brought memories of that Briley ture finally voted to end execution, his work with the National Coalition to use of the death penalty,” Abolish the Death Penalty, and a goal to “broaden said former death row abolition support across the political spectrum,” inmate-turned-paralegal when he took over as Executive Director in 2015. Joe Giarratano. “Then In 2017, with a grant from the Sisters of Bon I chuckled. I could hear Secours, VADP hired Field Director Dale Marie Deans’ voice in my Brumfield to conduct grassroots educational head, ‘Get back to work, all of you, the job is not presentations on the death penalty to Republican, done. States continue to kill in our names to show Libertarian, Democrat, faith-based, and civic that killing is wrong.’” organizations in target legislative districts around “I look forward to Governor Northam signing this the state. The goal was to raise awareness and bill into law that will make Virginia the first build grassroots support for abolition. Southern state to abandon the death penalty,” With the General Assembly not yet ready to Stone concludes. “We hope that Virginia will set seriously consider death penalty abolition, VADP an example for other old Confederate states to worked with mental health organizations for five take this bold step toward the humane reform of years on a bill to exempt people with severe our legal justice system.” mental illness from receiving a death sentence. − Dale Brumfield, VADP Field Director

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