Better lawyering has caused drop in death sentences in Virginia, study author says
Capital sentencing hearings in Virginia are getting longer and the number of death sentences is getting lower.
The author of a study released Monday suggests the two developments are linked, the Associated Press and UVA News report.
University of Virginia law professor Brandon Garrett compared 21 capital murder trials held since 2005 in Virginia with 20 capital trials from 1996 to 2004. Capital defendants received life sentences in more than half the trials since 2005, double the number in the older group of trials.
In the newer group of trials, defense lawyers called 15 witnesses on average at sentencing hearings, which lasted four days on average. Defense lawyers called only five witnesses in the older sentencing hearings, which lasted only two days on average.
“The difference between the lawyering in the ’90s and the last decade was just stunning to me,” Garrett told the Associated Press. “I just couldn’t believe how little work they used to put into sentencing. It was almost like an afterthought.”
The article notes a change in Virginia’s capital defense system. Since 2004, the state has had four regional capital defender offices. Before that, capital defendants largely relied on court-appointed lawyers.
“The study suggests that it does not take the ‘best of the best’ or some kind of ‘dream team’ to effectively represent a capital defendant,” Garrett told UVA News. “But it does take a team, a team of specialist capital defense lawyers and investigators, preferably working in an office, that understand the very different way that a death penalty case must be litigated from its inception.”
