"What the public generally doesn't understand about (execution) delays is that they think it's only some lawyer out there doing something" aimed at delaying it.

"The reason there's a delay is because the U.S. Supreme Court has set up a system of a lot of protections for persons facing execution. And that is to protect against society imposing the death penalty" in an unfair way.

"The reason it takes time is not because somebody out here, like me, is doing this, although the fact is, if he didn't have an attorney he probably would have been executed in 1983," Kaine said.

"All we're doing is saying the U.S. Supreme Court has set the rules and we're just playing by the rules. I think society has an interest in that.

"I know that makes people mad, but the alternative is to just have immediate executions and then what you end up with is innocent people being executed," said Kaine.

"People's anger and fear really ought to be addressed to the Supreme Court -- and that's not, at this point, a real radical, liberal body. These are conservative justices who still believe that certain protections have to be allowed to make sure that it's done fairly."