The move could table the measure for the year and result in an effective moratorium on executions in Virginia, a state second only to Texas in the number of prisoners it has put to death in recent decades.
The Virginia Department of Corrections is out of the chemicals that make up its three-part execution cocktail and is currently unable to locate more. Under existing law, therefore, the state may not execute any prisoner who does not choose the electric chair.
The bill was prompted by the scarcity of the drugs, which has come about as manufacturers in Europe and at least one in the United States have started refusing to sell them for use in executions.
After a sometimes emotional debate that included three senators recounting the murders of relatives, the Senate voted 21 to 19 to send the bill back to the Courts of Justice Committee for further study.
Republicans who opposed the delay questioned whether the bill will ever find its way back to the floor. Democrats have had a majority on the committee since a narrow special election victory two weeks ago gave them control of the Senate.
State law allows death-row inmates to choose between two methods of execution: lethal injection and electrocution. Lethal injection is the default method if a prisoner doesn’t choose.
The bill would make electrocution the default method, allowing corrections officials to use the electric chair when a choice is not available and requiring them to use it when a prisoner does not make a choice. Virginia would become the only state where death-row inmates could be forced to accept electrocution as the means of their death.
