Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Members of the Virginia State Crime Commission will decide by December whether to support legislation expanding capital punishment to those who kill a firefighter or emergency responder while performing their duties.

Since 1976, Virginia has expanded its capital murder laws to include 15 circumstances that could result in the death penalty, including murder in the commission of a rape, robbery or various other crimes. Killing an on-duty law enforcement officer has been a death penalty qualifier since 1977.

Virginia is second only to Texas in the number of inmates put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Opponents argued at the commission’s meeting last week that Virginia should be finding ways to eliminate the death penalty rather than expand it.

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