I find this discussion a little odd, since all counties exist under the constitution and laws of the state, it is hard to figure out how an execution is not by "the commonwealth"

Question:  who executed John Brown?  The County  or the Commonwealth?  Was he convicted of "treason" against the county?
Was Nat Turner executed for breaking the laws of the County?
Just because people were executed locally, does not mean the  state was not executing them?
An appeal for pardon was to the governor, was it not?  It was not to the county judges who also served as the "executive branch" of the county.


----------------------

Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public  Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY  12208-3494

518-445-3386 (o)
518-445-3363 (f)

www.paulfinkelman.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anthony Santoro
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 2:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] New Blog Entry - Virginia Christian

Quite right -- I misread that in the initial posting.

On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 8:04 PM, Roger Christman <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Prior to 1908 executions in the Commonwealth of Virginia were carried out
> by
> localities, in localities.  In 1908 the General Assembly transferred that
> authority from localities to the Commonwealth of Virginia and centralized
> executions at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond.
>
> My post did not claim Virginia Christian was the first woman executed IN
> Virginia; I stated that she was the first person executed BY the
> Commonwealth of Virginia.
>
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