VADP

Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP) is a statewide citizens' organization dedicated to educating the public about alternatives to the death penalty.

The bases for our beliefs and actions include the following:

• The death penalty panders to fear and outrage by attempting to provide a simple solution to complex questions.
• The death penalty is ineffective. Numerous studies show that it does not deter crime.
• The death penalty discriminates against: the poor, people of color, and people from rural areas.
• Our opposition to the death penalty in no way negates or contradicts our sorrow over the loss of life suffered by murder victims and our compassion and sympathy for their families and friends.
• All of humanity's major wisdom traditions call on us to love one another and value human life. The state should not completely devalue human life and execute anyone by repeating a violent act.
• The death penalty saps our economic resources. Since it costs more to kill a prisoner than to house one for life, executions waste tax dollars that can be spent on effective crime prevention.
• Research shows that despite all legal safeguards, innocent people have been wrongly convicted of murder and have been killed by the state. After 130 death row exonerations, common sense tells us that, because humans err, the justice system simply cannot be made foolproof. Some innocent people will die as long as we have a death penalty. These mistakes can never be corrected.

SUPPORTING MURDER VICTIMS' FAMILIES

VADP works together with Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation in supporting the families of murder victims.

VADP ACTION

Sign up for VADP's email alerts to stay up to date on events in your area, pending executions, vigils, death penalty legislation, and anti-death penalty work in communities around the state.

Virginians Say They Want an Alternative

Politicians loudly support the death penalty because they believe it is popular - - and it's easier than finding more complex, effective solutions to crime. Republican Senator Ken Stolle (8th district, Virginia Beach) said to the General Assembly on April 8, 2009 that he respects those who oppose the death penalty because, in his view, "it is harder to be against the death penalty than for it". Independent statewide polls from 1989 and 1993-present asked this question to a broad sample of Virginians:

"Would you favor abolition of the death penalty if the alternative were a life sentence with no possibility of parole?"

The Response: The 1989 poll from Virginia Commonwealth University and the 1993-present poll from the Center for Survey Research at Virginia Tech show that Virginians overwhelmingly prefer the alternative over the death penalty. The figure is consistent with similar polls nationwide.

Virginians may dislike the death penalty for many reasons: religious faith, belief in the sanctity of human life, recognition of the inherent fallibility of the human justice system, opposition to punishments which unfairly affect the poor and people of color, or simply the desire for legitimate crime-fighting tactics, rather than futile, expensive, vengeance. The death penalty is not a deterrent and murder will never be eradicated, the question is: who do we want to be?