State 23rd in U.S. to end death penalty

Gov. Ralph Northam signed historic legislation Wednesday abolishing the death penalty in Virginia, a state with a long and prolific history of carrying out executions.

Northam toured the death chamber at the Greensville Correction Center, after signing the landmark bill. The legislation marks a dramatic shift in a state that has executed more people than any other.

Virginia has put to death nearly 1,400 people since its days as a colony. In modern times, the state is second only to Texas in the number of executions it has carried out, with 113 since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Last month, Virginia’s new Democratic majority won a yearslong battle when both the Senate and House of Delegates approved bills to end capital punishment. Virginia has become the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty.

Council of Texas, and Christi Craddick, chair of the Texas Railroad Commission.

In written testimony, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the grid was designed for peak summer heat, and policymakers wrongly believed that a 2011 severe winter storm that caused outages was an anomaly.

Turner said state leaders assumed that a pricing system that rewards power companies for generating when electricity is in high demand would compel those companies to be prepared for the next big winter storm. “It did not happen,” he said. “The magnitude of the damages was foreseeable and preventable.”

For nearly a week in February, most of Texas suffered through subfreezing temperatures. Millions lost power and heat. When pipes burst and water systems shut down, Texans were told to boil water for drinking — if they still had a way to boil water.