Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was transferred to the Law Library in April of 2019. Prof. Bonnie, that has worked with the VCRRC, thought the files were worth keeping.

Scope and Contents

The VCRRC, which is a local non-profit that provides representation in death penalty cases donated its collection of Virginia newspapers clippings in April of 2019. These materials (15 cartons, 15 linear ft.) were originally part of a project managed by Richard Bonnie and consist of news clippings about crimes that could potentially become death penalty cases. Bonnie explained that he contacted a clippings service agency in order to enable research into when the death penalty was and was not applied—was there discrimination in application— after its reinstatement in 1976. Bonnie said that no one was doing this work at the time and there was no other way he could think of to determine when the death penalty was applied. As far as he knew, no one had ever completed a significant review of the files to determine the application of the death penalty.

Arrangement

Boxes 1-8 are organized by date.

Box 9 has folders organized by date as well as folders organized by content.

Boxes 10-11 have folders organized by location and date.

Boxes 11-14 contain folders organized by the last names of inmates on death row and defendants in capital cases.

Boxes 14-15 contain non-client news clippings which touch on subjects including lethal injection, the federal death penalty, and jail reform.