Is Virginia’s Move to Abolish the Beginning of the End of the Death Penalty in America?
History News Network by Rick Halperin Rick Halperin is director of the Human Rights Program at SMU Dallas He writes frequently on death penalty policy at the state and federal level. Given all the crises the nation has been dealing with in the last year, it is easy to overlook a major human rights accomplishment and advancement that is occurring right before us. The impending abolition of the death penalty in Virginia is indeed an historic moment in this country’s human rights history. It continues a long trend over several decades in which numerous states throughout the country reached similar conclusions to end the barbaric practice of state-sanctioned executions. Of course, as a Southern state and the former capital of the Confederacy, Virginia’s move is all the more noteworthy. I [...]