Northam abolishes Virginia's death penalty
At a ceremony at the Greensville Correctional Center, where the state houses its death row, the governor said the move would help reform an imperfect justice system.
"We can't give out the ultimate punishment without being 100 percent sure that we're right," Northam, a Democrat, said.
Northam added that the death penalty is disproportionately used against Black people, who accounted for 296 of the 377 inmates executed by the state in the 20th century.
Virginia, which last carried out an out an execution in 2017, has conducted 1,390 since 1608, when it was a British colony. Texas, which became a U.S. state in 1846, is in second place, but leads by a wide margin since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Twenty-seven other states along with the federal government still have the death penalty, according to tracking site deathpenaltyinfo.org and the Death Penalty Information Center.
Two men remain on Virginia's death row, including Thomas Porter, who was convicted of killing a police officer in 2005. Northam said those issued the death penalty will remain in prison without parole.
Democrat Joe Biden took office as the first U.S. president to commit to seeking to abolish the federal death penalty.
