The Show Must Go On!

It's a ritual that's been performed for millenia.

The mental condition that made you decide to hurt our life liberty and happiness does not let you off the hook

The state prosecuter was careful to dot I's and cross T's.

The governor (and the Supreme Court)respect the authority of the state court system.

Public consensus says...
We'd like to see you dead.

Oh, and there is a 100% chance that you're guily (not 99.99%)

You've gotten more attention than the average felon

And manage to cost more dead than to stay in prison for another 40 years.

While we no longer have public ceremonies, we make it up with media hype and the standard rituals:

Last Meal
Last Rites
Last Words
Last Breath
Last Heartbeat

Many states have outlawed formal, legal executions such as that which will be happening to our local sniper in a few minutes. Some more states have so throughly restricted it so that there's an insurmountable amount of red tape to hurdle, there's Texas Law. Or Virginia in this case.

The individual trials were spread among 3 governing bodies:
The trial happened in DC: We can't execute you.
The trial happened in Maryland: Now what if that aforementioned condition mitigated that thing you did? Did we catch you on tape? Is there DNA evidence? Now someone else could be framing you?...
So, the trial was focused in Virginia: It'd be an honor to continue this fine tradition.