What does Virginia have in common with Iran, Somalia and Sudan?
They all allow executions for crimes committed by juveniles.
Legislation submitted this year by Del. Vincent Callahan, R-McLean, and Sen. Patricia Ticer, D-Alexandria, would remove Virginia from that list by saying that juveniles who murder someone cannot be sentenced to death for their crimes.
“There’s something fundamentally wrong with a society that executes children,” Callahan said.
So it seems Vince Callahan, who until he sided with the anti-taxers for most of last year was considered a more moderate GOPer, seems to have come home a bit. Let’s hope he can bring some of his Republican brethren along.
[Jack Payden-Travers, director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty] said that Virginia has executed 21 juvenile offenders since 1787. Of those, 19 were black.
Only six states, including Virginia, still allow people to be executed for crimes committed when they were juveniles, Payden-Travers said. Virginia is second only to Texas in the number of juveniles it has executed.