Post by Logan on Mar 7, 2016 20:55:54 GMT -6
RICHMOND — Virginia could use the electric chair to execute death-row inmates when lethal-injection drugs are not available under a bill that passed the state Senate on Monday.
The legislation must return to the House, where it passed in February, because the Senate amended it slightly to require that the director of the Department of Corrections to make “substantial efforts” to obtain the drugs before resorting to the chair.
Assuming the House accepts the amendment, the measure will go to Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who has not stated a position on the measure.
The proposal puts Virginia at the center of a national debate over how to carry out capital punishment at a time when lethal injection drugs have become hard to obtain.
Read more: www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-senate-votes-for-using-electric-chair-if-execution-drugs-stay-scarce/2016/03/07/ff28e800-e487-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html
The legislation must return to the House, where it passed in February, because the Senate amended it slightly to require that the director of the Department of Corrections to make “substantial efforts” to obtain the drugs before resorting to the chair.
Assuming the House accepts the amendment, the measure will go to Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who has not stated a position on the measure.
The proposal puts Virginia at the center of a national debate over how to carry out capital punishment at a time when lethal injection drugs have become hard to obtain.
Read more: www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-senate-votes-for-using-electric-chair-if-execution-drugs-stay-scarce/2016/03/07/ff28e800-e487-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html