The VLW Blog

Two prosecutors say it’s wrong that Duncan Meekins is still behind bars when he helped put the infamous Briley brothers in the electric chair.
Robert J. Rice and Warren Von Schuch, who prosecuted the case 30 years ago, are set to meet next month with Virginia Parole Board officials to plead for Meekins’ release. According to the Richmond [...]

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Defense attorneys are finding fertile ground for cross examination in a Campbell County death penalty case.
A medical examiner testified at a pretrial hearing yesterday that her signature was forged on the victim’s death certificate submitted to the Health Department. Evidence suggested the forgery might have been the result of a paperwork error at a funeral [...]

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Gov. Tim Kaine has vetoed a handful of bills from this year’s General Assembly session aimed at increasing the scope of Virginia’s death penalty.  In particular, the governor has refused to sign legislation that would modify Virginia’s “triggerman” rule to make accessories and principals in the second degree eligible for the death penalty in certain [...]

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York County Circuit Judge N. Prentis Smiley lacked any authority to commute the death sentence of capital murder defendant Daryl Renard Atkins to life in prison, an attorney told the Supreme Court of Virginia today.Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. and Justice Barbara Milano Keenan seemed to have trouble with that concept. Circuit judges have [...]

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Unless Gov. Kaine intervenes, convicted cop killer Edward Bell will be executed later this week.
The Associated Press (by way of the News & Messenger) reports that Bell was supposed to be executed last year for the 1999 shooting death of Sgt. Ricky Timbrook, but Gov. Timothy M. Kaine delayed it while the [...]

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A divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld yesterday the constitutionality of the lethal injection procedures Virginia uses to execute inmates sentenced to death.
The opinion, Emmett v. Johnson, had been watched closely because it was the first federal appellate decision since the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Baze v. Rees, that upheld [...]

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As reported on SCOTUSblog: In a widely splintered decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for death-row executions to resume across the country, concluding that the most common method of lethal injection does not violate the Constitution.
The Washington Post notes that Governor Kaine acted quickly to reinstate the death penalty in Virginia.

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Yesterday, the American Bar Association renewed its call for a nationwide moratorium on use of the death penalty; the group issued a report based on several states’ experience, calling the system “deeply flawed.” Virginia was not one of the states studied.
Through a spokesman, Attorney General Bob McDonnell says he disagrees with the ABA study, [...]

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Three death-penalty law experts met yesterday at the University of Richmond law school. Even with the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule soon on whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment, they agreed the debate over the death penalty won’t be over any time in the near future. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has the story.

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