Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam nixed the death penalty in his state on Wednesday, signing legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly last month, ending executions.
The last two men currently sitting on death row in the state will have their sentences commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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“There is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the South, or in this nation,” Northam said.
The governor signed the bill at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, which has carried out lethal injections and electrocutions for three decades.
Before signing, Northam toured the facility, noting that he felt it was a “powerful thing” to stand in a room where people had been put to death. Northam, and lawmakers who pushed for the legislation, cited that the death penalty disproportionately affected black people.
Virginia is the 23rd state to abolish capital punishment, and it is the first state in the South to do so.
Virginia has a history of implementing executions more than any other state, putting 1,400 people to death in 400 years, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, reversing a 1972 decision that executions were unconstitutional, Virginia has put 113 people to death, the highest number of executions behind Texas, which has 570.
President Joe Biden, who vowed on the campaign trail to abolish the federal death penalty, has discussed the logistics of ending capital punishment with the Justice Department, according to a report by the Associated Press. Biden is the first sitting president openly to oppose the death penalty.
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More than 2,500 inmates are on death row in the states that still allow executions, according to data collected by the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. California leads, with 711 prisoners on death row, though there is currently a statewide freeze on executions.
