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2011 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Courts of Justice

Chairman: Henry L. Marsh III

Clerk: Angi Murphy, Cheryl Law
Staff: J. French, M. Felch, K. Stokes
Date of Meeting: February 2, 2011
Time and Place: 02:00pm/Senate Room A
Please note: SB762 has been added to today's docket

S.B. 762

Patron: Puller

Emergency vehicles proceeding past red lights.  Provides that emergency vehicles proceeding past any steady or flashing red signals, traffic lights, stop signs, or other devices indicating moving traffic shall stop must sound a siren, exhaust whistle, or air horn designed to give automatically intermittent signals or bring the vehicle to a complete stop before proceeding with due regard to the safety of persons and property.

S.B. 769

Patron: Marsden

Reckless driving; failing to stop at a school bus. Provides that a driver is guilty of reckless driving who fails to stop, when approaching from any direction, at any school bus which is stopped for the purpose of taking on or discharging children, etc., and to remain stopped until all the persons are clear and the bus is put in motion. The current law omits the word "at" in the now corrected phrase "at any school bus" and, thus, gives the sentence, and the law, its intended meaning.

S.B. 820

Patron: Edwards

Mental health courts. Provides that any district court or circuit court may establish a mental health court, which is a separate court docket within the existing calendar of a district or circuit court offering judicial monitoring of the treatment and supervision of certain individuals with mental illness who are under the jurisdiction of the criminal court. The court is required to (i) identify eligible individuals; (ii) obtain services from a willing local community services board or behavioral health authority serving the territorial jurisdiction of the court and which can provide, or contract for, appropriate treatment and services for the offender or, from a program offered to any eligible veteran by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; (iii) maintain court-established treatment and compliance terms of participation; and (iv) monitor adherence to court requirements.

S.B. 956

Patron: Blevins

Criminal history record information; Department of Rehabilitative Services. Authorizes the Department of Rehabilitative Services to obtain criminal history record information for the purpose of evaluating an individual's fitness for various types of employment and for the purpose of delivering comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services that will assist the individual in obtaining employment.

S.B. 1035

Patron: Barker

Possession of open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle; penalty. Provides that no person shall possess an alcoholic beverage in the passenger area of a motor vehicle upon a public highway of the Commonwealth in other than the manufacturer's unopened, original container. The bill punishes violators with a civil penalty of $25.

S.B. 1042

Patron: Barker

Texting while driving.  Repeals the "secondary enforcement" provisions of the statute prohibiting texting, etc., while driving.

S.B. 1047

Patron: Barker

Provisional driver's license holders.  Makes cell phone use while driving by a provisional driver's license holder a primary offense.

S.B. 1063

Patron: Miller, J.C.

Servicemembers and veterans courts. Establishes the Servicemembers and Veterans Court Act. The bill allows the establishment of servicemembers and veterans courts as specialized court dockets within the existing structure of Virginia's court system, offering judicial monitoring of intensive treatment and supervision of offenders who appear to suffer from mental illness, alcohol or drug abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder, or traumatic brain injury, any of which appear to be related to military service, including, readjustment to civilian life. A state military members and veterans court advisory committee is established and localities intending to establish servicemembers and veterans courts are required to establish advisory committees. The Supreme Court of Virginia is given administrative oversight for the implementation of the Act.

S.B. 1075

Patron: Barker

Administrative suspension of license.  Changes the period of administrative license suspension upon arrest for a DUI from seven to 60 days and, for a second or subsequent offense, from 60 days until the time of trial.

S.B. 1103

Patron: Hanger

Department of Forensic Science; powers and duties.  Provides for the Department of Forensic Science to provide forensic laboratory services upon the request of the head of any private police department that has been designated as a criminal justice agency by the Department of Criminal Justice Services.

S.B. 1118

Patron: McEachin

First offense DUI; ignition interlock and restricted license.  Provides that a person who is convicted of DUI is required to have an ignition interlock on the first offense as a condition of a restricted license. Currently, the requirement for an interlock is imposed only upon a second offense or when the offender's blood alcohol content is above 0.15 percent. The bill also expands the likelihood that a first offender will be issued a restricted license when necessary for the offender's employment.

S.B. 1180

Patron: Marsden

Pretrial deposition of a witness in a criminal trial. Creates a mechanism for the taking of a pretrial deposition of a witness in a criminal trial who has been shown to the satisfaction of the court to be likely to be unavailable for trial because of sickness or impending death.

S.B. 1200

Patron: Obenshain

Criminal law; redefinition of the triggerman rule; penalty. Redefines the "triggerman rule," by expanding the principals in the second degree and accessories before the fact who can be charged with capital murder. This bill allows a principal in the second degree to be tried as a principal in the first degree if he had the same intent to kill as the principal in the first degree in cases of the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of rape, etc. The bill allows an accessory before the fact to be tried as a principal in the first degree if he ordered or directed the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing in such a case. The bill also removes the provision that a principal in the second degree or an accessory before the fact in a capital murder in the commission of an act of terrorism must have acted pursuant to the direction or order of a person engaged in an act of terrorism.

Current law provides that principals in the second degree and accessories before the fact can be charged as principals in the first degree in the cases of murder for hire, murder involving a continuing criminal enterprise, and terrorism (if done pursuant to the direction or order of one who is engaged in terrorism) and that in all other cases of capital murder only the actual perpetrator is eligible for the death penalty and accessories and principals in the second degree can be punished only as if guilty of first degree murder.

S.B. 1248

Patron: Vogel

Passing a stopped school bus.  Rewrites the Code section that punishes passing a school bus as reckless driving to correct an error in legal construction and to further clarify the language. The bill contains an emergency clause.

EMERGENCY

S.B. 1259

Patron: Vogel

Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center; review of databases. Changes the requirement that data in the Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center databases be reviewed every year to a requirement that it be reviewed every five years. Information that is determined to not be related to terrorist activity shall be removed from the database.  

S.B. 1260

Patron: Vogel

Possession of child pornography by law enforcement. Provides that an employee of a law-enforcement agency may lawfully possess child pornography for a bona fide law-enforcement purpose and that the provisions of the bill are declarative of existing law.

S.B. 1328

Patron: Herring

Magistrates ascertaining citizenship of arrested persons.  Requires a magistrate or other issuing authority having jurisdiction who issues a warrant following a warrantless arrest to inquire as to whether the arrested person (i) was born in a country other than the United States and (ii) is a citizen of a country other than the United States. The magistrate or other issuing authority having jurisdiction shall make an immigration alien query to the Law Enforcement Support Center of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for any arrested person who responds that he (a) was born in a country other than the United States and (b) is a citizen of a country other than the United States, or for whom the answer to clause (i) or (ii) is unknown. The magistrate or other issuing authority having jurisdiction shall communicate the results of any immigration alien query to the Central Criminal Records Exchange of the Department of State Police in a format approved by the Exchange. The information received by the Central Criminal Records Exchange concerning the person's immigration status shall be recorded in the arrested person's criminal history record. Under current law, sheriffs and jail officers have the above duties when a person is taken into custody at their jails.

S.B. 1395

Patron: McEachin

Firearms; alcohol; penalties. Provides that it is a Class 1 misdemeanor for a person who is under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs to carry a loaded firearm in a public place and that a person found guilty is ineligible to apply for a concealed handgun permit for a period of five years. The bill also makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor for a person to carry a loaded firearm onto the premises of any restaurant or club licensed to sell and serve alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption and consume an alcoholic beverage while on the premises.