Virginia’s House of Delegates on Wednesday easily passed an expansion of capital punishment that had long been vetoed by former Gov. Tim Kaine.
The bill, which would abolish Virginia’s “triggerman” rule by making accomplices in capital murder cases eligible for the death penalty, cleared the Republican-controlled chamber on a 72-24 vote. Current law allows only the killer himself to be put to death, with some exceptions.
The House also approved legislation that would allow killers of EMS personnel, fire marshals and auxiliary police officers to be executed.
Debate over the triggerman restriction has been a yearly exercise in the Virginia legislature. Under the Kaine administration, bills to scrap the rule repeatedly passed both the House and Senate only to be vetoed by the governor, who is personally opposed to expanding capital punishment in Virginia.
Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican who took office last month, is expected to sign the legislation into law if it reaches his desk.
Similar legislation remains in committee in the Senate, which now stands as the last hope of death penalty opponents to keep the triggerman rule in place. Beth Panilaitis, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the group is disappointed by the House’s passage of the bill, which she calls “unnecessary and excessive.”
“This bill will not make the citizens of Virginia any safer and will exacerbate the already arbitrary application on the basis of race and geography,” she said. “With Virginia facing a major budget shortfall, it is irresponsible to expand the death penalty and take away funding from critical programs.”
The governor was pleased by the vote, said spokesman Tucker Martin. McDonnell, a former local prosecutor and state attorney general, “strongly believes that equal culpability demands equal punishment,” Martin said.
Virginia has put to death 105 people since 1976, when the Supreme Court ruled reinstated the death penalty, making the commonwealth second only to Texas in executions.
