Supreme Court Stays Execution in Virginia

Today the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to stay the execution of Edward Nathaniel Bell while they review the claim that his lawyers did a poor job of representing him during the sentencing stage of his trial. In Virginia, there are two stages to a trial. The first determines guilt or innocence and the second determines the sentence in a guilty verdict is returned. During the second phase, prosecutors can introduce evidence that would tend toward a stiffer sentence--in this case, death--while the defense can introduce mitigating evidence.

Lawyers for Bell did not submit any evidence on his behalf, even though they had a psychologist review him. His new lawyers are claiming that this failure to offer mitigating evidence about his childhood and environment was prejudicial to the jury determining his sentence. As one jury member said, "[The jury was] looking for something mitigating, some reason not to sentence him to death, but . . . [we] were given nothing by his lawyers." The supreme court is reviewing whether or not the 4th Circuit Court was correct in rejecting this claim (Bell's petition to the Supreme Court is here).

Virginia has executed 98 people since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976. They have executed more people than every other state except Texas. We should urge Governor Tim Kaine to commute Bell's sentence to life in prison since there is every reason to believe that the jury would have done so had the evidence been presented.