The state of Virginia is now having a shortage of lethal-injection drugs. These will force the government to use electrocution as a substitute to carry out with the execution of condemned inmates.
The bill to use the electric chair as a substitute has won the senate voting 22-17. But Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe hasn't indicated any clue that he will sign the bill.
According to CBS News, for the past years, Virginia had a hard time obtaining lethal injection drugs because the companies that manufacture them are against the use of these drugs for execution. That is why the state is forced to bring back the electric chair or the firing squad as a substitute.
According to Democratic Senator Scott Surovell, who is also known as an opponent of the bill, when somebody is given a death penalty, the state is simply charged with extinguishing a human life. But Democratic leader Dick Saslaw countered this saying when offenders murder multiple people, they no longer deserve to be treated humanely. As reported by AOL News, State Senator Mark Obenshain from the Shenandoah Valley also said that some people just have black hearts and they're beyond redemption.
The electric chair has always been an option for inmates that are already in the death row together with the lethal injection. The purpose of the bill is to make the electrocution the last method of execution if the state is unable to obtain lethal injection drugs as per The Washington Post. Robert Gleason Jr.,42 years old, was the last Virginia inmate to be executed using the electric chair in 2013 after strangling two of his fellow inmates.
Tennessee also passed the same law. Utah, on the other hand, approved the use of firing squad as a form of execution if the drugs are not available while Oklahoma became the first state to approve the use of nitrogen gas for execution if the lethal injection drugs are deemed unconstitutional.
The case of convicted murderer Ricky Gray has been the basis of the people that supports the bill which indicates that the state doesn't have enough lethal injection drugs to carry on with the execution. But due to a federal appeal, Gray's execution was put on hold until the US Supreme Court decides to intervene on it
