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news briefing to help head off an intense sympathy campaign for convicted murdered Edward B. Fitzgerald who is scheduled to die in the state’s electric chair on July 23.
The briefing by Deputy Attorney General Stephen Rosenthal and Chief of Staff. Deborah Love-Bryant went into detail about the 1980 murder when Fitzgerald raped a woman in a Richmond suburb then stabbed her 184 times.
A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union called the briefing “a pep rally for an execution.” But VCU political scientist Robert Holsworth said Ms. Terry was apparently trying to get out front on the matter before “he (Fitzgerald) becomes the next death penalty poster child. ”
Ms. Terry is obviously not only doing her job of defending the state, but is also attuned to the political reality that no anti-death penalty candidate could win a statewide race in Virginia.
In fact, few successful candidates for any offices of consequence this year or next year in the state will be capital punishment opponents. And because of that, Virginia’s electric chair will continue to be put to use several times a year.
(Editor’s note: John Goolrick, a former political reporter, is now an aide to 7th District Rep. George Allen. Opinions expressed are his own.)
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