I believe the death penalty is barbaric and has no place in modern Charlottesville courts. And so, I am calling for a moratorium on death penalty prosecutions. During the past 20 years, that is, the term of the incumbent Commonwealth's Attorney, a number of capital murder charges have been brought against some people, almost all of them poor. Then the charge is often used as a bargaining chip to get the defendant to plead guilty to murder and accept a life sentence. This practice of using the threat of death to plea bargain is legal, and under current ethical standards, considered ethical.

However I find such a practice immoral. By engaging in this practice the prosecutor is tempting fate: what if their threat doesn't work and the case goes to a jury? The notion that "no Charlottesville jury will return a death sentence" is misleading--in a capital murder case the jury has to be "death qualified," meaning that the jurors must believe in the death penalty and would be willing to consider death as a punishment.

Such a jury is not representative of the community! Studies have shown that a "death qualified jury" is much more likely to convict and to return a sentence of death.

If I am elected Commonwealth's Attorney, I would end the possibility of a death sentence by imposing a moratorium on death penalty prosecutions. A prosecutor does not have to bring a capital murder charge--they have the option of bringing a regular murder charge instead. And the crime (murder) would be vigorously prosecuted as a murder charge.

Please understand that I am taking a bold, controversial stand on this issue, and I need your help. Elections have consequences and I ask for your support in my campaign for Commonwealth's Attorney in the City of Charlottesville in the upcoming Democratic primary on June 11.

Thank you!

Steve Deaton (Electronic mail, March 21, 2013)