| Washington Post Editorial - A year for more executions |
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Sunday, January 3, 2010
VIRGINIA WAS one of 11 states that put an inmate to death in 2009. The state executed three prisoners, including D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad, contributing to the first spike in executions since 2005. Nationwide, 52 prisoners were put to death in 2009, up 41 percent from the 37 executed during 2008. Part of the increase can be attributed to an artificial drop in the number of executions in 2008 when states enacted de facto moratoriums as the U.S. Supreme Court weighed the constitutionality of lethal injections. Still, the continued reliance on this unnecessary and barbaric punishment is regrettable, especially because of the continued risk that innocent men and women could be put to death. Indeed, nine inmates who had spent years on death row were fully exonerated in 2009, thanks in large part to the increasing use and sophistication of DNA evidence. |
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