To the editor:

It’s become quite clear that the movement to abolish the death penalty has reached Virginia. Death penalty opponents have suggested replacing it with life without parole. They advocate for it as a more humane alternative to execution. That it’s “punishment enough.”

Except you shouldn’t believe that death penalty opponents will keep life without parole. Recent legislation in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont is seeking to end life without parole, using the exact same arguments that have been used against the death penalty. “Few civilized countries have life without parole,” “It’s too harsh,” etc.

The movement to abolish the death penalty has always been a movement of goalposts, as opponents who have suggested life without parole as an alternative are using the very same arguments they used against the death penalty to advocate for the removal of the very same alternative punishment that they suggested in the first place!

Vox News and The Sentencing Project are now promoting the abolition of life without parole, so you shouldn’t think it’s me fearmongering.

The death penalty should stay in Virginia, not just because some crimes are just too heinous to be punished by life without parole but also because it also prevents the abolition of life without parole. If the death penalty is abolished on a Monday, the movement to abolish life without parole will begin the following day. And before you know it, murderers will be back on the streets.

Daniel Garcia

McLean