House committee kills 2 Republican parole board bills

The Virginia House of Delegates’s Courts of Justice Committee Tuesday killed two Republican bills that would have made individual parole board votes public record and forced such boards to release monthly reports detailing their actions with incarcerated citizens. The committee referred the latter bill to the crime commission for further study.

The Virginia Senate had passed both bills earlier in the General Assembly’s ongoing special session.

“Once again House Democrats have demonstrated that their top priority in this special session is making life easier for criminals,” said House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert. “If murderers, rapists, and child molesters are to be released from prison, victims of their crimes and members of the public should at least know when it’s happening, and which members of the Parole Board voted for that release.”

The first bill was sponsored by Republican Senator David Suetterlein, while the second was sponsored by Republican Senator Mark Obenshain.

Members of each chamber are now considering bills that passed the other chamber; in order for those bills to advance to Gov. Ralph Northam’s desk, they must pass both the Senate and House in the exact same language. Then Northam will have the chance to sign them into law.

Some bills will pass as is, while other bills will face changes and possibly go into conference in order for legislators to finalize on one bill.

Committee advances several Democratic bills

The same Democratic-majority House committee passed multiple bills from Democratic Senator Louise Lucas. The first would empower the state’s attorney general to take civil actions against law enforcement agencies. The second would downgrade the marijuana to a secondary traffic violation.

Speaking in favor of the latter bill, a representative from ‘Virginians against Drug Violence’ said it would lead to fewer encounters with police officers, which will “prevent bad things from happening.”

Democratic Senator Jennifer Boysko saw her earned sentence credit bill pass through the committee. It would allow those who are incarcerated to earn a reduction in the prison sentence with good behavior.

Democratic Senator Scott Surovell saw only one of his two bills pass, when the committee voted in favor of a measure that would allow prosecutors to drop charges without needing the consent of the judge.

The committee effectively killed another bill from Surovell that would have eliminated the mandatory minimum sentence requirement for an assault on a law enforcement officer.

“This is the only crime on the books where the same person is the victim, the lead witness, lead investigator, and the charging officer,” said Surovell.

Virginia State Police official Wayne Huggins spoke out against the bill at the meeting, saying he specifically disagreed with the idea of an officer being injured as the criteria for more severe charges under this legislation. Huggins said he wants the charge for someone swinging and missing to be equivalent to an officer being punched in the face.

Delegates were also struggling to work through some of the language in the bill. Delegate Jeff Bourne (D-Richmond) expressed concern that the bill’s language did not adequately address juveniles or autistic citizens, so he moved to kill it and refer it to the crime commission for further study.

That motion passed nearly unanimously, with only Democratic Delegate Patrick Hope voting against killing the bill. (Senators recently killed a qualified immunity bill from Bourne.)

The House did not pass a similar version of this bill. “They had concerns about how tight the definitions were on the misdemeanor option,” said Surovell after the vote. “There’s not enough time in special session to figure out the language, and the bill is not a priority without a House corollary bill.”

“Currently, you can get a felony for throwing an onion ring at a police officer,” said the ACLU of Virginia in a statement after the vote. “No one should be felonized for ‘assault’ on police where there is no bodily injury.”

The committee advanced a bill from Democratic Senator Joe Morrissey that would allow for the judge in a trial, instead of the jury, to sentence the defendant. Democratic Delegate Mike Mullin spoke out against the bill, citing the unknown costs associated.

Mullin called it “a dangerous proposition” to pass the bill without know what it will cost.

“Nobody said we are going to need more money for registrars if we let women vote,” said Morrissey in response. “We said it is a violation of the constitution and it has to be fixed.”

Bourne and Democratic Delegate Jennifer Carol-Foy both spoke in strong favor of the bill. “

I think this is important enough to move on,” said Bourne. The committee passed the bill by an 11-9 vote.

* * *

This article first appeared on VirginiaScope.com. It is republished here with permission.