Virginia becomes the first southern US state to abolish the death penalty

Senate vote on the abolition of the death penalty, this Monday in Richmond (Virginia). Steve Helber / AP

Pending only the governor's signature, Virginia legislators approved this Monday to abolish the death penalty in the state that has implemented the most executions in the history of the United States.

Not only that: it is also the first state in the south of the country, where the territories in favor of capital punishment are concentrated, which does so.

When the governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, signs the bill and it takes effect, Virginia will be the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty, leaving 24 operational.

The Democratic majority in both houses have pushed the law forward on the grounds that the death penalty has been disproportionately applied to people of color, mentally challenged and homeless.

Local Republicans resisted, considering that the measure leaves victims and their families without redress, and that certain types of crimes are so terrible that they leave no other option.

A Republican senator joined Democratic representatives in the vote.

The state of Virginia has executed about 1,400 people since the first, in 1608, in its days as a colony, according to the NGO Information Center for the Death Penalty.

Since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, Virginia has executed 113 people, the second most significant number after Texas.

The entry into force of the law has brought salvation to the only two prisoners left on Virginia's death row, both convicted in the first decade of this century.

Inmates will serve a life sentence, without the possibility of obtaining parole.

“This painful history exposes the racism that underpins capital punishment,” writes

Democrat Tim Kaine

in

, former governor of Virginia and currently represents the state in the US Senate. “In the 19th century, Virginia he executed 513 blacks and only 41 whites, ”recalls Kaine, recalling that crimes that are only classified as offenses if they are perpetrated by a white person constitute punishable crimes if committed by a black person.

Between 1908 and 1965, 55 people - all black - were executed for rape or attempted rape.

As a lawyer, and before making the leap into politics, Kaine represented several death row inmates.

Only 55% of Americans today believe, according to a Gallup poll, that capital punishment is the appropriate punishment for a murderer, the lowest support in history, despite which Republican Donald Trump said goodbye to the presidency with a record of executions of federal prisoners.

As of last July, no federal inmate had been executed in 17 years, a record set by the pace set by the Republican Administration, responsible for the highest number of executions in a hundred years, and contrary to the appreciable downward trend in the states.

President-elect Joe Biden has promised to end the use of the death penalty.