Statement on Ending Capital Punishment in Virginia

March 24, 2021

As the final and most important signature is placed on legislation ending the barbaric practice of capital punishment in Virginia, allow me to remind you who made this happen: public defenders, capital defenders, abolition activists and others who have toiled in obscurity, if not ignominy, decades before repeal became politically feasible. Advocates who placed unparalleled demands on themselves, making tremendous personal and professional sacrifices in the name of human dignity. Advocates who had little to gain but the reward of knowing they were doing the right thing, regardless of whether the world hated them for it.

Ed Ungvarsky, a long-time capital defense attorney, is one of those advocates. No one is saying his name right now, but those who cast the votes for repeal are familiar with his work. As the Washington Post recounted yesterday, “a chief motivator” for Sen. Dick Saslaw to abandon his long-time support for the death penalty was the 2018 capital murder trial of Ronald Hamilton. In any other era, Hamilton would have been a lock to receive a death sentence — he not only killed his wife, he killed a police officer on her very first day on duty. He was convicted of the offense, but the jury gave him life, thanks to the extraordinary work of Ed and his team, who represented Hamilton. The case may have been the tipping point for Saslaw to realize that “juries aren’t handing these out anymore.”

No, they aren’t. But that’s not just some random coincidence or even a natural evolution of community values. Juries aren’t handing them out because defenders have convinced them not to. Ed’s case was just the last example of two decades worth of the same thing — capital defenders, through intense, client-centered, advocacy, grinding the machinery of death to a halt. Not a single new death sentence in Virginia in 10 years. Only one upheld death sentence against defendants represented by capital defender’s offices since those offices opened in 2004.

I don’t mind when politicians talk about the significance of repeal or the shift in their own thinking, and I certainly don’t mind that criminal justice reform is starting to be seen as winning political strategy. But I’m not going to bury the lede here. The General Assembly may have put the signatures on this legislation, but it was envisioned, developed, and drafted over the course of decades, through the dedication of those who made it their life’s work.

Allow me to introduce you to some of them. Maybe look them up on the internet, send a word of thanks. Today is as much their day as anyone’s: Joe Flood, Ed Ungvarsky, Doug Ramseur, Rich Johnson, Steve Milani, Michael Stone, Dale Brumfield, Jennifer Stanton, Jon Shapiro, Dan Goldman, Meghan Shapiro, Kelson Bohnet, Jon Sheldon, Rob Lee, Dawn Davison, Elizabeth Peiffer, Chris Leibig, Joni Robin, David Bruck, Roger Groot, Bill Geimer, Matt Engle, Bernadette Donovan, Jim Hingeley, Sarah Burke, Rob Poggenklass, Jerry Zerkin, Ellen Shultz, Sam Dworkin, Rachel Sutphin, Kristina Leslie, Vivian Hernandez, Deirdre Enright, and many, many, more...

Brad Haywood
Executive Director
Justice Forward Virginia