The Senate Courts of Justice Committee yesterday defeated a bill it had approved in previous years that would expand eligibility for the death penalty.
The vote on the Democrat-controlled committee was 9-6 against repealing the "triggerman rule," under which only the actual killer is eligible for the death penalty in a capital murder.
The legislation had managed to pass the committee and both chambers of the General Assembly the past two years, only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat.
It widely was expected that Gov. Bob McDonnell would sign the measure into law if it had reached his desk. But the addition of two Democrats to the committee and a "no" vote from a previous supporter, Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, doomed the legislation.
One Democrat, W. Roscoe Reynolds of Henry County, joined the five Republicans in voting for the law.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, said he was surprised by Deeds' vote, given his support for the measure previously and during his run for governor last year.
"It is disappointing always when a committee blocks a bill from getting to the floor that you know has a broad bipartisan majority of support," he said. "Its time will come."
More than a dozen people spoke on the bill, all but one of them expressing opposition to the legislation.
Foes included death-penalty opponents and the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union as well as Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring. He parted with the position of the Association of Commonwealth's Attorneys, which spoke in support of the legislation.
"We still bear the burden of proving the intentional element," said Robert Beasley, representing prosecutors.
Herring said the only way to prove that an accomplice to a capital murder shared the same criminal intent as the actual killer would be through circumstantial evidence, which he called a "dangerous slope" for deciding death-penalty eligibility.
The committee also heard from Jerry Givens, who carried out 62 death sentences between 1982 and 1999 as an executioner at the state penitentiary in Greensville.
"The people that recommend executions, that pass these bills, they don't have to do these things. The executioners and the people that participate in these things, they have to suffer through this stuff. These things linger on," he said.
Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.
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