State and National Government
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A proposal to eliminate Virginia’s death penalty is half-way home to passage in the General Assembly. The State Senate gave its approval Wednesday after lengthy and emotional debate. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would abolish the death penalty, a measure that if passed into law would mark a major policy change for a state that has historically led the nation in the number of executions it has carried out.
The Democrat-controlled chamber approved the bill on a 21-17 vote, which came after a lengthy, emotional floor debate.
“I cannot think of anything that is more awful, unspeakable and wrong for a government to do, than to use its power to execute somebody who didn’t commit the crime they’re accused of. The problem with capital punishment is that once it’s inflicted you can’t take it back, it can’t be corrected,” Sen. Scott Surovell, the bill’s sponsor, said as he introduced it.
Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has said he supports a full repeal, and a House version of the bill is advancing in that chamber.
Virginia has executed nearly 1,400 people in more than four centuries, more than any other state, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In modern times, Virginia is second only to Texas in the number of executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
A bill that would require every Virginia public school system to make both virtual and in-person learning available to students has passed the State Senate, but its chances of House passage appear less certain. Supporters of the proposal say students have lost too much this year by being out of classrooms — not just educationally, but socially and emotionally as well. Opponents cite health safety concerns in more crowded schools and say the state should not enact mandates for local school systems. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — After a lengthy and impassioned floor debate, the Democrat-controlled Virginia Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would require every local school division to make both virtual and in-person learning available to students.
The measure was sponsored by Republican Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, who is a doctor.
“We must open schools,” Dunnavant said, urging her colleagues to “listen to the science.” She said there’s no evidence to support keeping children out of in-person school and warned that vulnerable children were being left behind.
Virginia currently has a patchwork approach to schooling, with some public and private schools offering in-person learning while others offer only virtual school. Supporters of Dunnavant’s bill said that’s harming children whose parents don’t have the resources to pay for costly tuition.
Dunnavant’s succinct measure simply says that each school division must make virtual and in-person learning to available to all students “by choice of the student’s parent or guardian.”
“This is the most important bill that we will vote on this legislative session,” GOP Sen. Ryan McDougle said during a floor debate in which about half the members of the chamber weighed in.
The debate came as pressure is building on school systems across the U.S. to reopen classrooms to students who have been learning online for nearly a year.
Democrats who spoke against the bill warned about creating mandates for school districts, and they raised concerns about the well-being of teachers and school support staff, as well as a mutated version of the virus first identified in South Africa. Public health officials are concerned that version spreads more easily and vaccines could be less effective against it.
Sen. Ghazala Hashmi warned that because the bill wouldn’t take effect until summer, it could complicate the efforts of local school districts that are already moving forward with partial reopening plans.
“This bill is not going to pass in the form it’s in right now,” he said.
Still, he said the bill would send a message.
Gov. Ralph Northam’s spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky, said the governor would review the bill “if and when it reaches his desk.”
“The Governor has made it clear that children need to be back in school, and that it is possible to do so safely. That’s why he has put significant COVID relief funding towards K-12 education, and why he has prioritized vaccinations for teachers and school staff,” she wrote in an email.
She also noted that Northam, a Democrat and a physician, recently rolled out new guidance aimed at getting more public schools open for in-person instruction. He described the guidance at a news conference last month, saying that the state’s new policy is: “Schools need to be open, and here are the ways to do that safely.”
The guidelines are not mandates and individual school districts still have final say in how they operate.
A bill is advancing in Richmond that would reduce the legal obstacles for many defendants seeking release on bail. Right now under Virginia law, defendants facing a variety of charges — mainly violent crimes and repeat offenders — are presumed unworthy of bail unless they can demonstrate otherwise. The bill under consideration would eliminate that presumption, although judges and magistrates would still have discretion to deny. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
State lawmakers are working on proposals to cover most public safety employees under workers’ compensation benefits if they die or become disabled from COVID 19. The benefits would be retroactive to last March if approved, applying to firefighters, EMT’s, law enforcement officers and correctional officers. The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee is working on a final version of the proposals. One not-yet-resolved issue: finding money in the current state budget to cover the additional expense. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
Sen. Amanda Chase Facebook
(news release) RICHMOND Today, Attorney Tim Anderson of Anderson and Associates in Virginia Beach, will file a federal lawsuit on behalf of plaintiff Senator Amanda Chase, candidate for Governor in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, against the Senate of Virginia for a civil rights violation, related to the public censure issued against her as a Virginia State Senator for their intentional, knowingly and deliberate violations offending the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution as well as a total disregard to follow its own due process rules in issuing the censure.
The Plaintiff has received a public censure from the Virginia Senate for speech and expression that is protected under the United States Constitution, namely free speech and political expression. The issuance of a censure, issued by the Virginia Senate, was unlawful and contrary to the Plaintiff’s Constitutional rights. This Court can provide redress the harm to the Plaintiff by declaring rights of the parties, issuing injunctive relief regarding the censure and expungement of the censure to the Plaintiff. In all reported cases of censures of state elected officials in the nation, none have been based solely on the speech of an elected official.
This censure of the Plaintiff violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as the Plaintiff is being singled out and selectively penalized for taking unpopular political positions that the majority of the members of the Virginia Senate disagree with. Deliberate and intentional violation of established rules and protocols regarding public censure violates the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Senator Chase is seeking the issuance of a temporary and permanent injunction against the Defendant Susan Clarke Schaar from allowing the publication of SR91 in the official journal of the Virginia Senate pending the outcome of this case; issue a declaratory judgment that the Censure of Plaintiff violated Plaintiff’s First Amendment rights under the United States Constitution; issue a declaratory judgment that the Plaintiff did not engage in Disorderly Behavior pursuant to Article Four Section 7 of the Virginia Constitution; order the Defendant, the Honorable Susan Clarke Schaar to expunge the Substitute Censure and the Original Censure from the Public record and the official journal of the Senate; order the Defendant The Honorable Susan Clarke Schaar to reinstate the Plaintiff’s seniority rank existing prior to the issuance of SR91; provide a speedy hearing to determine the rights of the Plaintiff pursuant to FRCP 57; and grant an award of attorney fees and costs, as well as any other such relief as this Court may deem appropriate.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — The Census Bureau’s missed deadlines could be a boon for Virginia Republicans but a bust for the New Jersey GOP — and the reverse for Democrats — as the only two states with legislative elections this year do so without the data they need to draw new boundaries.
The 2021 election cycle, the first since Democrats took control of the White House and Congress, is also supposed to be the first conducted after redistricting based on changes captured in the once-a-decade census required under the Constitution.
The delay in census figures means Virginia and New Jersey will continue to use decade-old maps that don’t reflect growth in areas such as northern Virginia and may undercount people of color, factors that could contribute to shifts in their statehouses.
The two are the only states with statewide elections in 2021; the unusual election cycle often provides an early window into the electorate’s view on a new presidential administration.
In past decades, the Census Bureau has given Virginia and New Jersey priority in receiving their redistricting data so they can complete the process in time to run their elections. This year, the entire census has been delayed by a combination of factors, and a top Census Bureau official said Wednesday that states won’t receive the necessary redistricting data for legislative boundaries until July.
That’s too late to accommodate Virginia and New Jersey, so they will have little choice but to conduct elections this year under the existing boundaries.
In New Jersey, voters approved a constitutional amendment to leave the existing lines in place for 2021 if the state didn’t receive the requisite census data by February, so its path forward is clear.
But that doesn’t mean everyone is pleased with how things turned out.
Republicans gripe that the amendment will lock in a Democratic advantage for another year, and apart from political party considerations, there are worries that people of color — particularly Hispanics and Asian Americans — whose population has grown an estimated 20% over the past decade won’t be fairly represented.
Democrats hold a 25-15 edge in the state Senate and a 52-28 advantage in the Assembly.
Jon Bramnick, the Republican Assembly minority leader, put the amendment that carries forward the current map in stark terms: “It’s bad.”
“It has kept Republicans in the minority for 20 years. Why would we want to keep a map that has kept Democrats in the majority?” he said.
The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project raised concerns that the amendment could put people of color at a disadvantage.
“It would … dilute the voting power of these communities immediately, in 2021,” said the project’s director, Sam Wang, during a legislative hearing. “A two-year delay in redistricting would likely harm communities of color, who have grown in population in areas across the state.”
Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon sponsored the amendment. He said if legislative redistricting were rushed in time for the 2021 election, it would likely be with incomplete census data.
“We either have a whole eight years of good numbers or 10 years of bad,” he said in an interview. “Why deal with partial numbers and then have a district that’s not representative?”
In Virginia, on the other hand, the status quo gives an advantage to Republicans, said Mark Rozell, political scientist at George Mason University.
“This buys one additional election cycle for Republicans before the redistricting process reflects the changes that benefit a more progressive side of the political spectrum,” Rozell said.
The expectation in Virginia is that the new data will continue the ongoing population growth in northern Virginia — a Democratic stronghold— at the expense of more rural areas that lean Republican.
The House of Delegates lines that were created in 2011 were drawn by a Republican-controlled chamber to benefit the GOP. In fact, when those boundaries were challenged on the basis of racial gerrymandering, Republicans defended themselves in court by arguing that they were motivated by partisan bias, not racial bias, when they drew the lines.
Democratic Del. Marcus Simon of Fairfax, a member of Virginia’s newly created bipartisan redistricting commission that will draw the new lines once the census data is received, said the GOP’s advantage under the old lines has been blunted to an extent by a 2019 court-ordered redistricting that unpacked racial minorities who had been crammed into 11 House districts. The redrawn lines made Democrats more competitive in a higher number of districts. That in turn fueled a Democratic gain of six seats in the 2019 House elections, flipping the chamber to Democratic control.
Less certain in Virginia is when candidates who win in 2021 will have to run again. A court could order elections to be held in 2022 to get the new lines in place as quickly as possible, and again in 2023. Or the 2021 winners could be allowed to keep their seats until 2023.
As much as Democrats might want the run under the new lines, Simon said the expenses and toll of running elections in three consecutive years might be excessive. And from a partisan perspective, he acknowledged that giving Republicans an opportunity in three consecutive years to flip the House of Delegates would not be ideal for Democrats.
“There’s no chance (for Republicans) to claim the majority in 2022 if there’s no election,” he said.
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A bill that would have restored parole in Virginia was killed Friday after lawmakers heard emotional testimony from family members of crime victims who pleaded with them to guarantee their assailants would stay locked up.
The Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee voted to send the measure to the Virginia State Crime Commission for study, ending the bill’s chances of passing this year.
Virginia abolished discretionary parole in 1995 and began requiring offenders to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.
During a hearing Friday, several family members of murder victims described the crimes in heart-wrenching detail and urged lawmakers to vote against reinstating parole.
Debbie Songer testified through tears about the killing of her 19-year-old son, Ben Graessle, in 2012. Graessle was shot three times outside an apartment complex in Harrisonburg. Dallas Chaplin, of Staunton, was convicted in his killing and is serving a 40-year sentence.
Songer said she gave her approval to a plea bargain because Chaplin offered to plead guilty under the deal. She said she would have pushed for the trial to go forward and for Chaplin to get a life sentence if she had thought he would be given a chance at parole.
“This is so unfair — making this retroactive — it’s so unfair to the victims and to their loved ones.”
Bryan Haskins, the top prosecutor in Pittsylvania County, spoke on behalf of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, saying the group opposed the measure and the retroactivity provision in particular.
Haskins also warned that the state parole board is not funded or staffed to handle the influx of the possible thousands of inmates who would become parole-eligible if the measure passed. The board has been under fire this year from prosecutors and victims’ families who raised concerns that the board was not following its own procedures in providing notification about its decisions. Those concerns have been at least partly substantiated by investigations by the state’s government watchdog agency.
Several people testified in favor of the bill, saying offenders who have used their time in prison to rehabilitate themselves should be given a second chance and allowed to return to society.
They emphasized that the bill wouldn’t automatically grant parole, it would just give inmates a chance to have their case considered. They said that offenders deserve a chance to prove they have changed.
“Again, parole is not a retrial of the case. Parole is the opportunity to have men and women, human beings, reenter society, rebuild their communities, and show and prove that the Department of Corrections, a state government agency, is doing their job,” said one speaker.
Others said the issue has already been extensively studied and urged lawmakers to take action this year.
“I mean, how many more parole bills need to be sent to the crime commission for study?” said one speaker, whose name was listed as Michelle Hawkins as she provided testimony virtually.
Sen. Joe Morrissey, who was a chief co-patron of the bill, said he supports the restoration of parole but agreed that the issue needs more study.
Sen. Amanda Chase Facebook
State Senator Amanda Chase tells supporters of her campaign for governor that last week’s censure by her Senate colleagues is flatly illegal, and she promises a federal lawsuit soon. The formal reprimand cites “conduct unbecoming” of a senator, and it cites in particular comments the Richmond-area Republican made during and after the Trump rally this month before the capitol riots erupted. On the Senate floor before the censure vote, she said the move was a political hit job meant to derail her campaign for governor. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
Photo: petesnyder.com
A wealthy owner of a capital investment firm is positioning himself as a supporter of Donald Trump’s policies as he runs for governor. But Pete Snyder hopes to appeal as well to many Virginians who do not like Trump’s personal style. Our political analyst says Snyder can use his considerable wealth to gain plenty of name recognition before the Republican party’s nominating convention in May. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more: