VA gov guts bill to let state use electric chair

This means when the lethal injection drug isn’t available, you can’t use the chair.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe gutted a bill to let Virginia use the electric chair when it cannot find scarce lethal-injection drugs, making an 11th-hour amendment Sunday that would instead allow the state to hire a pharmacy to make a special batch in secret.

Up against a midnight deadline to veto or amend legislation from this year’s General Assembly session, McAuliffe (D) scrapped the essence of a measure intended to address the drug shortage by making the electric chair Virginia’s default method of execution.

The chair is already an option in the state, where condemned inmates are allowed to choose between it and lethal injection. The measure was intended to remove the choice if the state cannot obtain the drugs, which have grown scarce amid political pressure against the death penalty.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.