Senate Health chair wants WV to reinstate death penalty for egregious sexual crimes against children
Sen. Brian Helton, a member of Senate leadership, says he’ll push legislation to reinstate the death penalty in West Virginia. Under his plan, capital punishment would be an option in cases where a person was found guilty of felony sexual battery against a child less than 12 years old.
Sen. Brian Helton, a member of Senate leadership, says he’ll push legislation to reinstate the death penalty in West Virginia. Under his plan, capital punishment would be an option in cases where a person was found guilty of felony sexual battery against a child less than 12 years old.
It would also apply to individuals who, in an attempt to commit sexual battery on a child, injures the sexual organs of the minor.
“I want to use every tool in our arsenal from a justice standpoint to protect babies and protect innocent children from this atrocity,” Helton, R-Fayette, said in an interview Thursday.
West Virginia’s death penalty was eliminated in 1965.
Helton introduced a bill reinstating the death penalty for egregious sexual crimes against young children earlier this year, but it didn’t get any traction during the legislative session. He plans to prioritize the legislation in the 2027 legislative session, which begins in January.
“I think we’ll have tremendous support,” Helton said. “Regardless of your party affiliation or your political views, if you cannot get behind standing up for our most precious young, innocent children who are absolutely devastated by this, then you really need to answer to your voters.”
Helton disagrees with a 2008 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana, where justices ruled 5-4 that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the death penalty for the rape of a child when the child did not die or the crime was not intended to result in death of the child.
His legislation from earlier this year said the Supreme Court ruling “was wrongly decided and an egregious infringement on the states’ power to punish the most heinous of crimes.”
According to Helton’s legislation, jurors would have the ability to recommend the sentence of death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole to the judge. The judgment of conviction and sentence of death would be automatically reviewed by the West Virginia Supreme Court.
Helton is a close ally of Gov. Patrick Morrisey and serves as chair of the Senate Health Committee, where he is tasked with oversight of the state’s child welfare system.
The Senate is overwhelmingly Republican, he believes that his bill on capital punishment will have bipartisan support.
When asked about the possibility of faulty DNA evidence which would be used in prosecuting the sexual crime, Helton said an appeals process is available to defendants as a secondary safeguard.
“I don’t think we can just throw our hands up in the air and say well you know, someone may be wrongfully convicted, so we can’t have harsh penalties for people for these sort of crimes,” Helton said.
Senators considered a bill earlier this year to reinstate the death penalty for people convicted of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual abuse of children in the same proceeding. The bill didn’t make it out of the Senate Finance Committee by deadline.
A cost estimate prepared by the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation estimated that each execution would cost the state $91,000. The division said construction of an area to hold death row inmates along with a building to carry out the executions would cost $20.4 million.
In 2025, the Senate also considered a bill to reinstate the death penalty for individuals who are sentenced for intentionally killing a law-enforcement officer or first responder in the line of duty.