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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
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Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2009 SESSION
Reynolds (Chairman), Stolle, Norment, Howell, McDougle, Hurt, Deeds
Clerk: Angi Murphy
Staff: J. French, M. Felch, K. Stokes
Date of Meeting: January 26, 2009
Time and Place: 4:00 PM, Senate Room A
Patron: Locke
Assault and battery; fire marshals. Adds fire marshals and assistant fire marshals who have police powers to the definition of law-enforcement officer in the assault and battery criminal provision, which means that the punishment for committing an assault and battery on such a person who is engaged in the performance of his public duties is elevated from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony, with a six-month mandatory minimum term of confinement.
Patron: Locke
Criminal law; fee for person entering VASAP. Increases from $250 to $300 the minimum fee and from $300 to $360 the maximum fee for persons entering VASAP. Upon each biennium beginning July 1, 2012, the maximum fee will increase by a percentage equal to the increase in the Consumer Price Index calculated from the time the fee was last set.
Patron: Marsh
Waiver of payment of interest on fines and costs; incarcerated defendant. Allows the waiver on accrual of interest on criminal or traffic fines or costs to apply to any case of an incarcerated defendant. Current law provides for the interest waiver only for the case for which the defendant is incarcerated.
Patron: Stuart
Criminal procedure; interpreter appointed for non-English-speaking defendant. Provides that the cost for such interpreter shall be borne by a defendant who is convicted at trial of the criminal offense.
Patron: Stuart
Children of certain persons at certain criminal proceedings. Provides that the court shall obtain from (i) persons at bail hearings, (ii) accused persons during arraignment, and (iii) defendants during the placement of probation and shall submit to the Department of Social Services the names, social security numbers, and dates of birth of the persons' and defendants' children, and the names of person having legal custody of such persons' and such defendants' children.
Patron: Reynolds
Larceny of money. Allows larceny of bank notes, checks, or other writing or paper of value to be charged as larceny under the grand larceny and petit larceny statutes.
Patron: Marsh
Confidentiality of court records. Provides that any person, agency, or institution that may inspect juvenile case files shall be authorized to have copies made of such records, subject to any restrictions, conditions, or prohibitions that the court may impose. This bill is a recommendation of the Committee on District Courts.
Patron: Watkins
Indigent defendants; right to ex parte hearing for appointment of experts in capital cases. Provides that an indigent defendant who has been charged with a capital offense may move in circuit court for the appointment of experts to assist in the preparation of his defense. The presiding judge shall designate another judge in the judicial circuit who shall hold an ex parte hearing on such a motion and may order the appointment of an expert. Any motion for an ex parte hearing shall be in writing and filed under seal and any ex parte hearing conducted shall be on the record and kept under seal as part of the record of the case. The expert's work product is protected by attorney-client privilege; however, the defendant shall comply with the discovery rules set forth in the Rules of the Supreme Court.
Patron: Howell
Assault and battery of law-enforcement officer; penalty. Adds Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police officers to the definition of law-enforcement officer, which means that the punishment for committing an assault and battery on such an officer who is engaged in the performance of his public duties is elevated from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony, with a six-month term of confinement, 30 days of which is a mandatory minimum.
Patron: Stuart
School property; sale of certain medicines. Makes the sale of over-the-counter medicines containing dextromethorphan on school property a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Patron: Quayle
Illegal gambling. Revises one portion of the definition of illegal gambling by deleting "a matter of chance" and inserting "contains any element of chance."
Patron: Herring
Financial exploitation of incapacitated adults; penalty. Creates the crime of financial exploitation of an incapacitated adult when a person responsible for the adult (i) knowingly and willfully uses, obtains, takes, secretes, appropriates, or retains the adult's real or personal property or other thing of value with the intent to defraud or with the intent to temporarily or permanently deprive the incapacitated adult of the use, benefit, or possession of the subject property or (ii) assists another in doing so. The penalty is a Class 1 misdemeanor if the value is less than $200 in a six-month period and a Class 6 felony if the value is $200 or more in a six-month period.
Patron: Petersen
Department of Criminal Justice Services; Regional Criminal Justice Academy Training Fund; local fees. Limits the amount of the fee that a locality not participating in a regional criminal justice training academy may charge to support training operations to $3 per violation.
Patron: Petersen
Grand larceny; threshold amount. Increases from $200 to $500 the threshold amount of money or the value of the goods or chattel that the defendant must take before the crime rises from petit larceny to grand larceny.
Patron: Puckett
Behavioral Correction Program. Allows an offender who otherwise would be sentenced to a fixed term of incarceration of three years or longer and who the court determines requires treatment for drug or alcohol substance abuse issues to be committed to a special program lasting 18 months or more. Following the offender's release, he is placed on supervised probation.
Patron: Puckett
Expungement of records; victim of identity theft. Relieves the victim of identity theft of any court costs for filing a petition to expunge the criminal records of charges against the victim brought as a result of the identity theft.
Patron: Puckett
Obtaining or attempting to obtain commercial goods or services without payment; penalty. Provides that any person who knowingly, with the intent to defraud, obtains or attempts to obtain, any commercial goods or services without paying therefor is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor if the value of the goods or services is less than $200, and is guilty of a Class 6 felony if the value of the goods or services is $200 or more.
Patron: Obenshain
Hanging of noose; penalty. Provides that hanging a noose on the property of another or in a public place with the intent to intimidate is a Class 6 felony.
Patron: Marsh
Year and a day rule repealed. Provides that murder or manslaughter may be prosecuted regardless of the amount of time that has passed between the act or omission causing the death and the death. Under common law, prosecution cannot occur if the victim dies more than a year and a day after the fatal injury was inflicted.
Patron: Hurt
Criminal law; identity theft; penalty; restitution; victim assistance. Clarifies that to obtain money, credit, or anything else of value by using without authorization or permission a person's identifying information is prohibited under the identity theft statutes.
Patron: Hurt
Master Settlement Agreement; criminal enforcement activities; penalty. Makes several changes to enhance criminal enforcement activities. The bill provides that any tobacco product manufacturer, stamping agent, or importer of cigarettes, or any officer, employee, or agent of any such entity, who knowingly makes any materially false statement in reports, documents, and tax returns required to be filed or kept under the Master Settlement Agreement or other substantive law shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony. The Attorney General is authorized to prosecute such cases. The bill also requires persons to file cigarette delivery sales information with the Attorney General in addition to the current requirement that such information be filed with the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. The bill adds criminal penalties for failure to file the required information; under current law all penalties are civil. The Attorney General is authorized to assess the civil penalties and prosecute criminal violations. In addition, the bill includes within the definition of "racketeering activity" the filing of false reports under the Tobacco Product Manufacturers Act, of false reports of cigarette delivery sales, and of false tobacco tax reports. The effective date of the bill is contingent on the appropriation of funds in 2009 or a subsequent general appropriation act.
Patron: Cuccinelli
Paramilitary activity; penalty. Makes it a Class 5 felony to provide land or other resources knowing that it will be used to conduct illegal paramilitary activities.
Patron: Reynolds
Criminal procedure; compensation of court-appointed counsel. Provides compensation to counsel representing an indigent prisoner under sentence of death in a state habeas corpus proceeding, on the same basis as provided to counsel representing a defendant charged with a Class 1 felony.
Patron: Norment
Capital murder; auxiliary police officers. Adds auxiliary police officers and auxiliary deputy sheriffs to the definition of law-enforcement officer in the capital murder statute so that the death sentence can be imposed for the murder of such an officer.
Patron: Stolle
Criminal penalties; larceny. Creates a new class of misdemeanor, called an “aggravated misdemeanor”, allowing for up to two years of incarceration and/or a fine of up to $2,500, for crimes including, but not limited to, larceny offenses between $200 and $500, second offense petit larceny, second offense of a violation of a protective order within five years, recruiting another into a street gang, assault and battery hate crimes, assault and battery of school personnel, second offense domestic assault, second offense stalking, second offense DUI crimes, third offense of driving on a suspended sentence, and driving after having been declared an habitual defendant. The bill also creates the crime of conspiracy to commit petit larceny and allowing for the amount of all goods stolen pursuant to such a conspiracy to be aggregated for any six-month period. Multijurisdictional grand juries are empowered to investigate and issue indictments for grand larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny. The bill adds larceny to the offenses that comprise a “predicate criminal act” as for the purposes of criminal gang activity and raises the threshold amount for grand larceny from $200 to $500.
Patron: Martin
DUI; prior offenses. Provides a definition of "substantially similar" for the purpose of determining when an out-of-state DUI conviction can be used to enhance punishment for a current Virginia DUI offense. Out-of-state laws that criminalize driving (i) while intoxicated, impaired, or under the influence and define intoxication or impairment as 0.08 or (ii) under the influence of, or while impaired by, alcohol, a drug, or alcohol and a drug are deemed to be substantially similar laws.