Cooch sets the record straight on the Death Penalty
With the General Assembly hard at work, there isn’t much time or focus for electoral politics–except for those on the outside. One candidate that is taking advantage of his outside position is John Brownlee, former U.S. Prosecutor for the Western District of Virginia and Republican candidate for Attorney General. Brownlee is traveling the state stumping on his positions. Brownlee is claiming that, as “Virginia’s Conservative Prosecutor” he is best prepared to run the AG’s office. Additionally, he claims that Senator Cuccinelli is insufficiently supportive of the death penalty and may be reluctant to seek it in state cases.
However, although Cuccinelli may be limited in how far he can travel from the Capitol (and a glance at his schedule shows that he is taken advantage of every spare minute to campaign), it hasn’t limited his ability to respond. From the Cuccinelli Compass:
So you have the information yourself, I have always been a supporter of Virginia’s death penalty law. In the Senate, I have consistently fought against Democrats’ efforts to impose a death penalty moratorium – and I have opposed efforts to allow endless appeals in death penalty cases.
As a State Senator, I have voted to extend the death penalty to people who murder trial witnesses, judges and law enforcement officers. And as your Attorney General, I am committed to upholding the death penalty verdicts of our juries and will work to defend and strengthen our capital punishment law from intrusions and attempts by the left to derail it.
I also have supported and will continue to support the death penalty under the current exceptions to the “triggerman rule” for (1) terrorism (including the beltway sniper case), (2) murder for hire, and (3) criminal enterprises/gangs. However, there have been legislative attempts to completely eliminate the triggerman rule, which I believe would be too broad an expansion. That’s the only expansion of the death penalty that I have ever opposed, while supporting other expansions and always defending our current death penalty statute.
I am looking to a spirited race for Attorney General and think that each candidate has something to offer. However, candidates need to be careful not to distort their opponent’s distortion for political gain.
