Post-Gregg
After the Supreme Court of the United States upheld Georgia's "guided discretion" laws in Gregg v. Georgia, Virginia's laws were modified along the same lines. The first person executed after being sentenced to death under these laws was Frank Coppola on August 10, 1982. He was the first of 109 individuals executed by the state, the second highest total post-Gregg behind Texas.
The electric chair continued to be solely used until 1994, when legislation was enacted giving inmates the choice of lethal injection or the electric chair, with lethal injection the default method if no choice was made. Six inmates have since opted for the Virginia electric chair; the most recent was Paul Warner Powell March 18, 2010. Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has also stated that he opposes the option of the electric chair, but he did not move to drop it as an option while in office.
Executions are carried out at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia, and death row is located at the Sussex State Prison near Waverly, Virginia. State law specifies that at least six citizens who are not employees of the Department of Corrections must be present to serve as witnesses to the execution. Since Governor George Allen signed an executive order on the matter in 1994, relatives of the homicide victim(s) in the case have the right to witness the execution. Relatives of the condemned inmate are barred from being present.
A legal precedent in the United States was created after the U.S. Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002). It ruled that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Daryl Atkins had been involved in a murder and robbery. He was "mildly mentally retarded" and had an IQ of 59. The ruling did stay the executions of several people on death row. Atkins was later judged to have an IQ of over 70 and remains on death row in Virginia.
As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime are constitutionally precluded from being executed.
Read more about this topic: Capital Punishment In Virginia