Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 26, 1994 TAG: 9402280272
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The state Senate voted 27-11 Friday to give death-row inmates that choice starting July 1. The House already has approved the bill, and Gov. George Allen has promised to sign it.
Supporters said that lethal injections would offer a more humane and less painful death than electrocution.
"Electrocution is a violent, torturous and dehumanizing act," said Sen. Edgar Robb, R-Charlottesville, who has witnessed an execution. "Carrying out executions should not require the state to stoop to the same level as the criminal.
The objective is death, not violent torture."
Opposing the legislation was an unusual mix of senators who contended that death sentences should be painful and some who argued that capital punishment should be abolished.
Lethal injection "just makes it too easy on someone who has committed a horrible crime," said Sen. Frank Nolen, D-Augusta County.
Sen. John Chichester, R-Fredericksburg, dismissed Nolen's argument. "Whether it's electrocution or lethal injection, the results are still the same," he said. "All this bill does is give prisoners a choice."
Opponents of capital punishment argued that the tranquil notion of "putting people to sleep" would ease public concern about the death penalty and lead to more executions in Virginia.
Lethal injections "mask the horror of what we do with the death penalty," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County. "What this mask does is enable those who carry out capital punishment to avoid the visible consequences of what they do. It is somehow easier to give an injection than pull a switch that sends thousands of volts coursing through a body."
Critics have argued that Virginia's electrocutions are little more than a slow cooking of inmates. Experts are divided on whether the prisoner feels pain. Some argue that prisoners are in agony for at least seven seconds; others contend the victims never know what hit them.
Under the bill, the death chamber in Greensville would be equipped to execute inmates by electrocution or injection. Prisoners would be asked to choose the method 15 days before their execution date. Those who refuse would die by injection.
Since 1908, Virginia has relied on the electric chair to execute condemned prisoners; 258 people have been put to death in the chair, all but one of them men.
Virginia's electric chair has been housed in Greensville Correctional Center since the State Penitentiary in Richmond was closed in 1992. The state subjects condemned prisoners to 1,825 volts of current for 30 seconds, then 240 volts for a minute.
States that permit lethal injection typically strap inmates to a gurney and inject with a combination of sodium pentothal, Pavulon and potassium chloride. It usually takes at least 20 minutes for the prisoner to die.
\ YEA OR NAY\ ON DEATH BY LETHAL INJECTION\ \ IN FAVOR: Sens. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount; Madison Marye, D-Shawsville; Jack Reasor, D-Bluefield; Elliot Schewel, D-Lynchburg.\ \ OPPOSED: Sens. Frank Nolen, D-Augusta County; Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle.\ \ NOT VOTING: Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB