08 January 2018 :

Governor Terry McAuliffe has commuted William Joseph Burns's death sentence to a sentence of life without parole. The Virginia state courts had found Burns to be mentally incompetent and mental health experts had testified that he was unlikely to ever become competent. Burns becomes the fifth death-row prisoner to be granted a commutation in 2017, and the second in Virginia. Burns, who was convicted of raping and murdering his 73-year-old mother-in-law, Tersey Elizabeth Cooley, in September 1998, will now serve life without parole. " McAuliffe said: “Commuting Mr. Burns' sentence to life without possibility of parole brings finality to legal proceedings; it assures the victim's family that Mr. Burns will never again enjoy freedom, but without the torment of post-trial litigation; and it allows the commonwealth to devote its resources towards other cases. In my view, this is the only just and reasonable course."