Virginia and the Death Penalty
Apropos of the sniper case trial, ABC News has an interesting article on Virginia's history of imposing the death penalty.
Virginia follows Texas with the most executions in the U.S. It authorizes the death penalty for those 16 years of age and older. Death can be by electrocution or lethal injection.
The first execution in Virginia was in 1608 at the Jamestown colony, the first exercise of the death penalty in the young colonies. Four years later, Virginia's governor, Sir Thomas Dale, enacted the "Divine, Moral and Martial Laws," where the death penalty could be used to punish such offenses as stealing grapes, killing chickens and trading with Indians.
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