Note to Virginia readers: Don't help anyone kill anyone

Why, you ask? Because you'll get the chair, too.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)
The Virginia State Crime Commission today endorsed legislation modifying the so-called "triggerman rule" in Virginia's capital murder law. The current rule limits the death penalty to the person who actually does the killing.

The bill backed by the commission would expand the capital murder statute to include accomplices who share the triggerman's intent to kill. That could include anyone who orders a murder or helps plan one.

Mike McGinty is president of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth Attorneys. He told of one case in which a teenage robber handed a gun to his little brother and told him to shoot a convenience store clerk. Because of the triggerman rule, only the little brother was eligible for the death penalty.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert of Shenandoah County.

Now, I understand that every case is different, and that is why we as citizens of America are innocent until proven guilty and allowed to plead our case in front of a jury of our peers. However, this "decision" is ripe for the picking as going dangerously too far. Mark my words; we will only inundate the judicial system with more problems and questionable decisions. This is just another hate amendment.