First white man

According to past stories from The Register & Bee, Christopher Scott Emmett is the first white person to be sentenced to death in Danville, Va since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstatedthe death penalty in 1976.

Does Virginia punish only black men and not white? While I've been told that Governor Timothy Kaine is personally opposed to the death penalty, I was also told that he vowed to "uphold the laws" of the state when he was re-elected. How can something like putting a man to death - deserved or not - be reduced to an issue of race and politics? I'm shaking my head.

Death, the death penalty and executions are more multi-faceted than one would imagine. Break it into its simplest terms - What does the law say? Was the man convicted and sentenced to death? Will he die? Then go back. What does the law say - to a lawyer and a judge? If you break the law into its various technical functions, Emmett's attorney may have reason and grounds to have the execution commuted, or delayed or postponed. Or not. Those who might want Emmett to "pay" for his crime point out that Emmett has time to think about, plot and plan his escape from death - his victim, John Fenton Langely, did not. Who looked into Langely's eyes the night he died? Did Emmett? Only he knows, and he's not talking.