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2010 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Courts of Justice

Chairman: Henry L. Marsh III

Clerk: Angi Murphy
Date of Meeting: January 27, 2010
Time and Place: 2:00 p.m., Senate Room A

S.B. 75

Patron: Reynolds

Appeal of bail decision.  Specifies the court to which a bail decision, bond amount, or term of recognizance should be appealed. The proper court is determined based on where the initial determination was made and the court in which the charge is pending. The bill also provides that the attorney for the Commonwealth may appeal any bail, bond or recognizance decision, consequently a decision made by a judicial officer (including a magistrate or clerk) will be appealable.  Current law limits such appeals from a court decision only, and only upon objection in court by the attorney for the Commonwealth.

S.B. 88

Patron: Howell

Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund.  Requires the Virginia Worker's Compensation Commission, which administers the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund, to adopt rates or fee schedules for payments to health care providers. The bill also provides that if a health care provider accepts payment from the Fund it is considered payment in full and the victim is not liable for the remainder.

S.B. 142

Patron: Miller, J.C.

Criminal street gangs; predicate criminal act. Adds burglary and shooting into an occupied dwelling to the list of predicate criminal acts for which a person committing such act may be convicted under the criminal street gang act.

S.B. 205

Patron: Edwards

Courts not of record; circuit court hearing; termination of juvenile court jurisdiction; objections and appeals.  Provides in certain violent felony cases for a juvenile's right to appeal to the circuit court, the attorney for the Commonwealth's decision to certify that the juvenile's case be transferred to the circuit court for trial as an adult. If the juvenile appeals the decision to transfer, the circuit court will conduct a hearing on the merits, using factors currently used by the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court for transfer decisions.

S.B. 389

Patron: McDougle

Offenses for which a juvenile is subject to transfer and trial as an adult. Provides that a juvenile age 14 or older shall, without more, be subject to a preliminary hearing in juvenile court, and transfer to a circuit court for trial as an adult if he is charged with any offense defined an act of violence in § 19.2-297.1, and has been previously adjudicated delinquent for such an offense.

The bill also provides that a juvenile court shall conduct a preliminary hearing upon notice by the attorney for the Commonwealth to the court and parties when a juvenile 14 years of age or older is charged with gang participation in violation of § 18.2-46.2.

The bill also provides that a juvenile court shall conduct a preliminary hearing upon notice by the attorney for the Commonwealth to the court and parties whenever a juvenile 14 years of age or older is charged with manufacturing, selling, giving, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture, sell, give or distribute a controlled substance or an imitation controlled substance in violation of § 18.2-248, manufacturing, selling, giving, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture, sell, give, or distribute methamphetamine in violation of § 18.2-248.03, felonious selling, giving, distributing or possessing with intent to distribute marijuana in violation of § 18.2-248.1, possessing with intent to manufacture, sell, give, or distribute anabolic steroids in violation of § 18.2-248.5, if the juvenile has been previously adjudicated delinquent of any such offense.

S.B. 486

Patron: Hurt

Juvenile records; gang information; exceptions to confidentiality. Places an affirmative duty on the Department of Juvenile Justice to provide information to law-enforcement that may aid in initiating or furthering an investigation of a criminal street gang. The bill also requires, rather than allows, the Department or locally operated court services unit to release to law enforcement information on a juvenile's criminal street gang involvement and the criminal street gang-related activity of others and to include the identity of or identifying information of the juvenile. Locally designated gang coordinators and task forces are added as authorized recipients of such information.

S.B. 487

Patron: Hurt

Criminal street gangs; predicate crimes.  Adds certain breaking and entering offenses and grand larceny to the list of "predicate criminal acts" for determination of criminal street gang status.

S.B. 495

Patron: Hurt

Analogous DUI laws of any other state or of the United States.  Allows analogous state laws to be used as prior DUI convictions and provides that a law is analogous if it criminalizes the operation of a motor vehicle while impaired by or under the influence of intoxicants and with regard to alcohol uses 0.08 as its presumptive or per se level of intoxication.

S.B. 530

Patron: McDougle

Solicitation to become a gang member; penalty. Provides that any person who, by telephone or by any electronically transmitted communication producing a visual or electronic message, solicits, invites, recruits, encourages or otherwise causes or attempts to cause another to actively participate in or become a member of what he knows to be a criminal street gang is guilty of a Class 6 felony. Currently, such solicitation by any method of communication is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

S.B. 531

Patron: McDougle

Fees for attorneys for the Commonwealth in criminal cases. Increases from $15 to $40 the fee that an attorney for the Commonwealth may receive for a felony case, and from $5 to $15 the fee that an attorney for the Commonwealth may receive for a misdemeanor case.

S.B. 602

Patrons: Newman, Hurt

Human infant; independent and separate existence. Provides that for the purposes of homicide and child abuse the determination of an independent and separate existence of a human infant from its mother shall not be conditioned solely upon whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta detached.

S.B. 620

Patron: Deeds

Additional fee for Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.  Creates the Internet Crimes Against Children Fund to be administered by the Department of State Police. The fund consists of a $10 additional fee on each felony and misdemeanor conviction, any appropriations, gifts, grants, and federal moneys received under the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program.

S.B. 631

Patron: Marsh

Gang-free zones; penalties. Expands current "gang-free school zones" to the broader "gang-free zones" and includes any school bus stop or the property, including buildings and grounds, of any publicly owned or operated community center, park, library, or hospital. Engaging in criminal street gang activity in a gang-free zone is a Class 5 or 6 felony and may include a two-year mandatory minimum sentence, depending upon other aggravators.