On March 24, 2021, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed into law a repeal of Virginia’s capital punishment provisions. Virginia is now the 23rd state in the nation to abolish the death penalty. Virginia has executed more defendants that any other state in the nation.
A majority of states have now either abolished the death penalty or are under a governor-imposed moratorium on capital punishment. (California, Oregon and Pennsylvania.) Interestingly, of the states that still have an otherwise active death row, 10 states haven’t executed any in over a decade: Kansas (1965), Wyoming (1992), Montana (2006), Nevada (2006), North Carolina (2006), Kentucky (2008), Indiana (2009), Louisiana (2010), Utah (2010), and South Carolina (2011). Additionally, two states—Idaho and Mississippi—haven’t executed anyone since 2012.
Read more about the historic development in Virginia here.
