Virginia Governor Lacks Courage of His Convictions: Allows Execution Despite Anti-Death Penalty Beliefs

From The Washington Post:

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine rejected a plea for clemency yesterday from convicted killer Dexter Lee Vinson, allowing his execution to go forward in the first test of Kaine's stated public resolve to uphold the death penalty despite his personal opposition.

Vinson, 43, was executed by lethal injection last night in Virginia's death chamber for abducting, stabbing and sexually mutilating his ex-girlfriend in Portsmouth in 1997. He was pronounced dead at 9:15 at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, said Larry Traylor, a Department of Corrections spokesman.

"I find no compelling reasons to doubt Mr. Vinson's guilt or to invalidate the sentence recommended by the jury and imposed, and affirmed, by the courts," Kaine said in a brief statement issued 2 1/2 hours before Vinson was put to death. "Accordingly, I decline to intervene."

With those words, Kaine made good on a promise he spoke directly and repeatedly to Virginians last year at campaign rallies and in television ads: that his personal and long-standing opposition to the death penalty, based on his Catholic faith, would not prevent him from allowing the ultimate punishment to be carried out.

(emphasis added)

My Comments:
Unfortunately, Tim Kaine takes the same approach when it comes to his allegedly "personal and long-standing opposition" to abortion.


UPDATE (2 May 2006):
One more thing. Virginia, I believe, has the 2nd highest number of executions annually, behind Texas. It's interesting to note that leftists who mock George W. Bush as the "texecutioner" because of the number of executions that took place during his stint as Governor of Texas don't seem to have any qualms about the executions taking place under the 2 most recent Democrat Governors of Virginia.

This despite the fact that the Governor of Virginia has REAL power to grant clemency, unlike the Governor of Texas who has NO SUCH POWER unless a recommendation of clemency is made by the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole (something they NEVER do).