Tag: capital punishment

Virginia Becomes First Southern State to Abolish Death Penalty

Virginia, the state that has executed more people than any other in the nation, has abolished the death penalty. Governor Ralph Northam signed the bill into law on Wednesday, a month it was passed in the state’s Democrat majority House and Senate.

“It is the moral thing to do,” he said during the press briefing, echoing Democrat party policy. “The death penalty is fundamentally flawed.” Virginia becomes the first former Confederate state to get rid of capital punishment.

“This is a major change because our Commonwealth has a long history with capital punishment. Over our 400-year history, Virginia has executed more than 1,300 people, more than any other state for 200 years,” Northam said.

Virginia executed 113 people in the years after the U.S. Supreme Court restored states’ rights to enact capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). In the last five decades, only Texas has executed more people than Virginia.

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GOP Texas lawmaker introduces bill to allow death penalty for women who have abortions

A Republican lawmaker in Texas has introduced a bill that would allow the death penalty for women who have abortions.

“Today, I filed HB 3326 to Abolish Abortion in Texas,” Texas State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R) said on Twitter.

“The bill will end the discriminatory practice of terminating the life of innocent children, and will guarantee the equal protection of the laws to all Texans, no matter how small,” he said.

Under HB 3326, a person who has an abortion or performs an abortion could be charged with assault or homicide, which is punishable by death, the Texas Tribune reported.

Slaton’s legislation also says that certain parties may have to testify in cases of death or “bodily injury to an unborn child,” and offers immunity to those that do.

The legislation also directs the state’s attorney general to “direct a state agency to enforce those laws, regardless of any contrary federal statute, regulation, treaty, order, or court decision,” the newspaper reported.

The bill would also ban abortions at fertilization, whereas most abortions in Texas are prohibited after 20 weeks.

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