Photo by stacyviera

Just last month, the state of Maryland saw some activity with regard to the death penalty. Yesterday was Virginia’s turn. The Washington Post reports that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine vetoed a mess of bills related to gun carry, capital punishment, and vicarious liability.

For the third consecutive year, as the Post notes, Gov. Kaine knocked down the “triggerman” bill that would hold accountable accomplices to murders. This is known as “guilt by association.” Human rights activists who oppose capital punishment will regard Kaine’s veto as a victory.

“Those who are equally culpable for a capital murder should be equally held to account under the law,” Virginia state legislator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) told Richmond’s ABC3 back in February. Unfortunately, where the law is practiced in the way Sen. Obenshain prefers, that is hardly the case. Last week, the Dallas Morning News ran an editorial about Texas’s “law of parties,” another vicarious-liability clause that has allowed the state to pursue the death penalty against figures who were peripherally involved in a crime.

Texas lawmakers are currently pursuing reforms that would guarantee that a defendant has a right to his own trial in a death penalty case. This right is crucial, since vicarious-liability rules tend to game the system, pitting one defendant against another when the stakes are so high and there’s a bargain to be struck with prosecutors. It’s a prisoners’ dilemma that maximizes the application of capital punishment. Another bill being considered in Texas would do the opposite of the would-be Virginia reform Kaine vetoed by ensuring that an accomplice cannot be sentenced to death under the law of parties. The Daily Texan reports that capital punishment in law-of-parties cases have claimed between 12 and 20 lives (by State Representative Harold Dutton (D-Houston)’s count).

Good rule of thumb, Virginia legislators? If Texas might walk away from a practice because it’s unfair, it’s not a practice worth walking toward.