"Ten people from the Charlottesville area met with Senator Creigh Deeds Monday at his office in Richmond. When asked what his position on the death penalty was, Deeds responded at first by saying that he thought capital punishment was sometimes the most appropriate response to a heinous crime. Disturbingly, he compared lethal injection to euthanizing a puppy or kitten. He then qualified his response by saying that capital punishment should not be used unless it functions as a deterrent, and there is no empirical evidence suggesting that it is.

He reminded us that last year he voted for a moratorium in the House. (The moratorium bill did not pass in committee this year, so he will not have the opportunity to vote on it.) He pointed out that last year the moratorium was justified by the JLARC study, and without that justification this year, it was unlikely to get out of committee. While he did not explicitly say so, he seemed to imply that he would support a moratorium if it came to a vote in the Senate.

He characterized the death penalty as not a "bread and butter" issue like health care, education, and economic development, that is, people don't get votes by supporting abolition. Unless it becomes a front-page issue (by executing an innocent person perhaps?), he said we were unlikely to get the attention of legislators" (Anne Meador, electronic mail, February 6, 2002).