The Republican National Committee on Monday released an ad against Hillary Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine for his record on the death penalty, just a day before the vice presidential debate.

The video cited decades-old criminal cases to suggest that Kaine is soft on crime, that he "consistently protected the worst kind of people" from capital punishment, and worked to avoid executions of criminals while he was governor of Virginia.

The ad included two early examples from his early career as a young defense attorney, when he represented two men who brutally sexually assaulted and murdered women. Richard Lee Whitley was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting an elderly neighbor and Lem Tuggle was found guilty of raping, sodomizing, and murdering a woman. Both were later executed in their respective Virginia prisons.

It also cited the widely publicized case of convicted double murderer Jens Soering. Kaine attempted to send the son of a German diplomat back to his home country, where instead of spending a lifetime in prison he would have been eligible for parole in two years.

Kaine's successors Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell and current Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe both prevented the transfer from taking place.