Gov. Northam posthumously pardons the Martinsville Seven
2021
Martinsville
On August 31, 2021, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam posthumously pardoned the seven Black men from Martinsville executed in February 1951.
The men were convicted in 1949 of raping a white woman, tried by all-white juries, and electrocuted in two groups on February 2 and February 5, 1951. Northam said the sentences were racially biased and that the men did not receive due process; the pardons did not address guilt or innocence. Descendants and advocates had petitioned for the action in December 2020. The Board of Historic Resources later approved a state highway marker for the case, proposed for 1 East Main Street in Martinsville.