Virginia lawmakers are expected to vote this week to establish the electric chair as the state’s default method of execution when drugs used for lethal injection are not available.
The measure, prompted by a long-standing shortage of the drugs, would make Virginia the only state where a death-row prisoner could be forced in some circumstances to be electrocuted.
The bill has passed the House of Delegates and is expected to emerge from the Virginia Senate this week. A spokesman said Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has not taken a position on signing or vetoing the legislation.
The embrace of an execution method largely shunned over the past two decades comes as the death penalty, while still legal in many states and supported by a large if declining majority of Americans, is becoming increasingly difficult to implement.
Across the country, states are struggling to procure the drugs necessary to perform lethal injections. Manufacturers in Europe have refused to sell drugs for use in capital punishment, as has at least one major U.S. manufacturer. The three-drug cocktail used commonly since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 is now out of reach.
Source: The Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2014
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