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Death Penalty Issues in the 2005 General Assembly
HB 1879 Crimes; death penalty.
Del. Frank D. Hargrove, Sr.
Summary as drafted: Crimes; death penalty. Abolishes the death penalty for all Class 1 felonies committed on or after July 1, 2005.
Position: We support
Death Penalty Enhancement Act of Attorney General Jerry Kilgore
* Allow the Commonwealth to appeal the dismissal of a warrant or any applicable charge or count on speedy trial grounds.
* Eliminate the automatic life in jail default that is currently the norm when a jury is hung in the sentencing phase of a trail and allow the dismissal of a hung jury.
* Eliminate the "trigger man" requirement for consideration of capital
* Prohibit unauthorized contact with jurors.
Position: We strongly disagree
Juvenile Death Penalty Bills
Del. Vincent F. Callahan, Jr. & Sen. Patricia S. Ticer
Summary as drafted: Capital punishment for minors. Restricts the death penalty to those who are 18 years of age or older at the time of the capital offense. Currently, the age is 16 or older at the time of the offense.
Position: We support
Death penalty; moratorium on executions.
Sen. Henry L. Marsh III
Summary as drafted: Death penalty; moratorium on executions. Provides that the Commonwealth shall not conduct executions of prisoners sentenced to death. All other matters of law relating to the death penalty, such as bringing and trying capital charges, sentencing proceedings, appeals and habeas review are not affected by the bill.
Position: We support
Death penalty; study of the capital punishment system in Virginia
Sen. Henry L. Marsh III
This will be a Senate Resolution calling for a study of Virginia’s death penalty.
Position: We support
SB 218 Felony convictions; issuance of writ of actual innocence for nonbiological evidence.
Sen. Henry L. Marsh III
Summary as drafted: See The Freedom Restoration Act; post-conviction relief listed below.
Position: We support
Introduced pre-session:
HB 1805 The Freedom Restoration Act; post-conviction relief.
Del. Robert G. Marshall
Summary as introduced: The Freedom Restoration Act; post-conviction relief. Amends provisions added to the Code during the 2004 General Assembly Session regarding writs of actual innocence based on non-biological evidence by removing the provision that the petitioner must have pled not guilty, the limit of one writ per conviction and the requirement that the evidence was previously unknown or unavailable to the petitioner or his trial attorney at the time the conviction became final. The bill allows the writ if the reason the evidence was not obtained was because of the failure of trial counsel to exercise due diligence, and changes the standard for issuance of the writ to substantial doubt about the petitioner's guilt. The circuit court may order an evidentiary hearing if necessary for the petitioner to develop additional facts.
Position: We support
HB 1053 Criminal penalties; revision throughout Code.
Del. David B. Albo
Summary as passed House: (all summaries)
Criminal penalty revisions. Adds a new felony class of five to 40 years to the existing six classes in order to classify as many unclassified felonies as possible. A Class 1 felony (life imprisonment or death sentence) is renamed a capital felony and a Class 2 felony (20 years to life) is renumbered a Class 1 felony. The new felony of five to 40 years becomes a Class 2 felony. The crimes of abduction and assault are broken into degrees. The penalties for malicious wounding of a police officer and malicious wounding with a caustic substance are raised to Class 2 felonies (five to 40 years) from the current penalty of five to 30 years. The "marital exemptions" for forcible sodomy and object sexual penetration are eliminated, as was done with rape during the 2002 General Assembly Session. The penalty for conspiring or attempting to abduct a person is raised to the same level as conspiracies and attempts for other crimes. Many of the revisions made are ancillary Code changes necessitated by the substantive changes. This bill is recommended by the Title 18.2 Study Subcommittee of the Virginia State Crime Commission and is a response to HJR 687 (2001), which requested the Crime Commission to study the organizations and inconsistencies in Title 18.2, the level and extent of penalty and to review the proportionality of criminal penalties. The bill has an effective date of July 1, 2005.
Position: We support
HB 1675 Felony cases; suspension or modification of sentence for cooperation with prosecution.
Del. John A. Cosgrove
Summary as introduced: Suspension or modification of sentence for cooperation with prosecution. Provides that when a person has been sentenced for a felony to the Department of Corrections, the court that heard the case may, after a hearing upon motion of the Commonwealth, suspend all or part of the unserved portion of the person's sentence. This intends to accommodate a case where an inmate cooperates and testifies in the prosecution of another person.
Position: We support
HB 1800 Capital murder by members of criminal gangs; penalty
Del. David B. Albo
Summary as introduced: Capital murder by members of criminal gangs; penalty. Provides that the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another pursuant to the direction or order of a member of a criminal street gang as criminal street gang is defined in § 18.2-46.1 is capital murder.
Position: We will not support the expansion of the Death Penalty
HB 1812 Execution of pregnant inmate.
Del. Robert G. Marshall
Summary as introduced: Execution of pregnant inmate. Proscribes the execution of an inmate while she is pregnant. The bill requires the Department of Corrections, if it finds that such female inmate is pregnant, to petition the sentencing court for a new execution date, which is at least 10 months later than the original execution date. The bill does not give the court discretion to determine the accuracy of the Department's finding but only the authority to set a new execution date.
Position: We support
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