"I've always believed the death penalty to be a deterrent," he said. "As secretary of public safety, I had to review all those heinous files. They're horrible. I think, once a jury decides that a crime is so heinous, that a death penalty can and ought to be the appropriate penalty."
Defense attorneys who argued cases against them recall that whichever one gave the opening statement, the other would present the closing. Kilgore said he always suspected that the judges could not tell one from the other.
"Jerry was always tenacious," said George Maddux, a defense attorney who argued several cases against the Kilgore brothers. "He never wanted to concede a point."
The case that most affected Kilgore involved two young children who had witnessed their father beat their mother to death.
"The system failed this woman, time and time again," said Kilgore, who has made domestic abuse programs a centerpiece of every campaign. "The system's got to be improved. . . . It's something I'm very passionate about."
When Kilgore left the U.S. attorney's office, there was speculation that he would run for Congress. But he said the only office he had in mind was Republican chairman of the 9th Congressional District. "I liked organizing," he said.
The job put him in charge of rallying George Allen supporters for his gubernatorial campaign in 1993. Kilgore was planning to stay in Gate City with his young family.
Then Allen called and offered Kilgore a job as secretary of public safety.
"Things changed when he got the call from George Allen," said Terry Kilgore. "He began evolving to a more public type of guy."
On to Richmond
Kilgore came under withering criticism that he was too inexperienced for the job. He was 32 and looked younger. When he arrived at events where he was scheduled to speak, people assumed he was an aide and asked him when the secretary was arriving.
Allen got an early measure of his new Cabinet secretary. The Board of Corrections was balking at accepting a deed offered for free to build a prison on Big Onion Mountain in southwestern Virginia. Board members serve at your pleasure, Kilgore advised him; get rid of them and appoint a board that will do your bidding.
"I have little patience for arguments that are meaningless," Kilgore said when asked what the incident suggests about how he might govern.
