Overview

"The death penalty was Virginia's longest continuing tradition, dating back to 1608 when Capt. George Kendall was shot for treason. Since then, Virginia has executed 1,390 people, more than any other state. This number includes 94 women, 736 enslaved people, and at least 16 children whose ages were verified between 11 and 17. ""Closing the Slaughterhouse"" exposes the corruption and systemic racial bias of Virginia's death penalty. Virginia used capital punishment as legal lynching, wielding it primarily against Blacks in crimes against whites. In addition to the significant number of executions, between 1976 and 2017, Virginia streamlined the legal process, killing people twice as fast as other states. On July 1, 2021, the former capital of the Confederacy became the first southern state to abolish the death penalty, led by a bipartisan coalition adopting a deliberate, bipartisan, and systematic approach. Abolition was the culmination of a tireless, decades-long effort to achieve this once unattainable goal, led by sometimes larger-than-life personalities, volunteers, non-profit organizations, and numerous others. ""Closing the Slaughterhouse"" traces all 413 years of Virginia's death penalty."

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9780578286860

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Recently honored by Death Penalty Focus for his critical part in the successful campaign to end the use of capital punishment in Virginia, Dale Brumfield has now given us a two-fer, a two-part monograph explaining how Virginia became the execution capital of America and how state killing was finally abolished there. -Mike Farrell, actor and President of the Board of Directors of Death Penalty Focus I applaud the Commonwealth of Virginia for abolishing the death penalty and congratulate Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the Virginia Interfaith Center, the Virginia ACLU, the Catholic Conference, bill patrons Del. Mike Mullin and Sen. Scott Surovell, the capital defense attorneys, vigil attendees, and all donors and supporters over the years who never gave up hope. -Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States (1994), The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions (2004), and River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey (2019).

Author Information

Dale Brumfield was field director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty from 2017-2022. He is also a journalist and the author of 12 books. His website is www.dalebrumfield.net.

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