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2012 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Courts of Justice

Chairman: Thomas K. Norment, Jr.

Clerk: Angi Murphy, Cheryl Law
Staff: J. French, M. Felch, K. Walsh
Date of Meeting: February 22, 2012
Time and Place: 1/2 hour after adjournment, Senate Room B, GAB

H.B. 42

Patron: Tata

Line of Duty Act; certain members of fire companies or departments. Expands the definition of a deceased person under the Act to include members of any fire company or department providing fire protection services for facilities of the Virginia National Guard or the Virginia Air National Guard.

H.B. 49

Patron: Albo

Penalty for DUI manslaughter.  Provides that the punishment for DUI manslaughter is to include a one-year mandatory term of confinement and raises the mandatory minimum term for aggravated DUI manslaughter from one to five years.

H.B. 274

Patron: Peace

Number of circuit court judges; Fifteenth and Seventeenth Judicial Circuits.  Increases the number of circuit court judges in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit from eight to nine, and decreases the number of such judges in the Seventeeth Judicial Circuit from four to three.

H.B. 288

Patron: Sherwood

Carrying weapons into courthouses; exception.  Provides an exception from the prohibition against carrying a weapon into courthouses in the Commonwealth for city and county treasurers.

H.B. 331

Patron: Villanueva

Obscenity.  Modifies the educational, artistic, and theatrical exemption to obscenity laws by providing that certain crimes (child pornography and use of communications systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children) are not subject to the exemption.

H.B. 389

Patron: Gilbert

Criminal law; redefinition of the triggerman rule.  Redefines the "triggerman rule," which currently provides that only the actual perpetrator of a capital murder is eligible for the death penalty and that accessories and principals in the second degree can be punished only as if guilty of first degree murder. This bill allows principals in the second degree and accessories before the fact to be charged as principals in the first degree in the cases of murder for hire, murder involving a continuing criminal enterprise, and terrorism. This bill allows, in all other cases of capital murder, 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. 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. This bill incorporates HB 954.

H.B. 391

Patron: Gilbert

Confidential juvenile records; sharing with state, local, and regional correctional facilities.  Provides for the sharing of juvenile records with state and local correctional facilities when such facility has custody of or is providing supervision for a person convicted as an adult who is the subject of such records.

H.B. 445

Patron: Toscano

Adoption procedures. Makes various changes to adoption procedures including: establishing a procedure for review of petitions filed for the purpose of obtaining a juvenile and domestic relations district court's assistance with the execution of consent to an adoption when the consent is executed pursuant to the laws of another state; expanding venue for consent hearings in parental placement adoptions to include any city or county in the Commonwealth, provided that diligent efforts are made to conduct the hearing where the child was born, where the birth parents reside, or where the adoptive parents reside; eliminating the need for parental consent for an adoption in cases in which a birth parent has, without just cause, neither visited nor contacted the child for a period of six months immediately prior to the filing of a petition for adoption or a petition to accept consent to an adoption; adding language setting forth requirements for establishment of a date of birth for a child adopted from a foreign country; and clarifying the requirements for stepparent adoptions. The bill also makes changes to the process of registering with the Putative Father Registry.

H.B. 475

Patron: Albo

Involuntary commitment; mandatory outpatient treatment. Alters the criteria for ordering a person to mandatory outpatient treatment or discharging a person for a period of mandatory outpatient treatment following involuntary commitment, replacing the requirements that the person has the capacity to understand and comply with the treatment, has expressed an interest in outpatient treatment, and has agreed to comply with the treatment with a requirement that the person has agreed to abide by the treatment plan and has the ability to do so. The bill also eliminates the requirement that providers of mandatory outpatient treatment services must have actually agreed to deliver such services before mandatory outpatient treatment may be ordered, and requires a finding that such services will be delivered to the person on an outpatient basis. The bill also provides that the duration of mandatory outpatient treatment following involuntary commitment shall not exceed 90 days, unless the order is continued. The bill also provides that mandatory outpatient treatment shall not include the use of physical force or restraint in administering medication.

H.B. 476

Patron: Albo

Mandatory outpatient treatment hearing prior to release from commitment. Provides that prior to the release of a person who has been involuntarily admitted or who has been the subject of a temporary detention order and chose to voluntarily admit himself, a hearing shall be held, upon the motion of the treating physician, a family member or personal representative of the person, or the community services board, to determine whether such person should be ordered to mandatory outpatient treatment upon release if such person has been involuntarily admitted or has been the subject of a temporary detention order and chose to voluntarily admit himself on at least two previous occasions within 36 months preceding the hearing. The hearing shall be held within 72 hours from the time the motion is received by the district court or special justice.

H.B. 479

Patron: Albo

Contraband and tax-paid cigarettes; penalties. Establishes legal limits and imposes criminal and civil penalties for possession with intent to distribute contraband tax-paid cigarettes by parties outside the legitimate distribution chain.

H.B. 508

Patron: Garrett

Synthetic cannabinoids; bath salts; penalties. Amends provisions added to the Code last year regarding the criminalization of synthetic cannabinoids and chemicals known as "bath salts" to add newly identified chemical combinations. The bill adds a more generic chemical description of synthetic cannabinoids so that new combinations will be illegal without the precise chemical combination being added to the Code.

H.B. 624

Patron: Albo

Sex offender registry; juvenile registration.  Requires registration on the sex offender registry for juveniles who were over the age of 13 at the time of the offense who were adjudicated delinquent on or after July 1, 2005, of rape, forcible sodomy or object sexual penetration.

H.B. 638

Patron: Stolle

Judicial authorization of treatment; advance directives. Provides that a court may authorize medical treatment for an incapacitated person when there is no available person with legal authority to make such decisions under (i) the advance directive of the incapacitated person; (ii) the regulations promulgated by the State Board of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; or (iii) other applicable law. The court may not authorize treatment that is contrary to the provisions of an advance directive or is proven by a preponderance of the evidence to be contrary to the incapacitated person's religions beliefs, basic values, or specific preferences as stated by the person before becoming incapable of making an informed decision, unless the treatment is necessary to prevent death or a serious irreversible condition. The bill also authorizes restraint or transportation of an incapacitated person if necessary for treating a mental disorder of a person subject to an order of involuntary admission.

H.B. 718

Patron: Kilgore

Juveniles; trial as adults.  Allows prosecutors the discretion to have juveniles charged with violations of certain gang offenses and repeat violations of certain drug offenses to be transferred to the circuit court for trial as an adult. The bill also provides that juveniles charged with an offense defined as an act of violence, if previously adjudicated delinquent of an act of violence, are automatically transferred to the circuit court for trial as an adult.

H.B. 750

Patron: Cline

Inherent authority to defer and dismiss a criminal case.  Provides that no court shall have the authority, upon a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or after a plea of not guilty, when the facts found by the court would justify a finding of guilt, to defer proceedings or to defer entry of a final order of guilt or to dismiss the case upon completion of terms and conditions except as provided by statute unless all parties agree otherwise or deferred judgment is provided for by statute. This bill responds to the January 13, 2011, Supreme Court of Virginia decision in Hernandez v. Commonwealth, 281 Va. 222, 707 S.E.2d 273 (2011). This bill incorporates HB 51.

H.B. 958

Patron: Bell, Robert B.

Arresting officer to ascertain citizenship of arrestee.  Supplements the existing law that requires sheriffs to make a query into legal presence when a person is "taken into custody" at a jail. This bill expands such inquiries by requiring inquiries of everyone arrested, and requires that an arresting officer inquire of every arrestee whether he (i) was born in a country other than the United States and (ii) is a citizen of a country other than the United States. This bill incorporates HB 89 and HB 320.

H.B. 968

Patron: Bell, Robert B.

Penalty for subsequent offenses of drug trafficking. Provides that any person convicted of a second offense of drug trafficking who has also been previously convicted shall be fined not more than $500,000 and imprisoned for five to 40 years, with a mandatory minimum term of incarceration of five years. The five-year mandatory term is a new penalty. The bill also increases the mandatory minimum term of incarceration for a third such offense from five to 10 years.

H.B. 973

Patron: Bell, Robert B.

Sex crimes; penalties. Imposes upon an adult offender a mandatory minimum life sentence for rape, forcible sodomy, and object sexual penetration of a child under the age of 13; and imposes upon a juvenile offender three or more years older than such a victim a mandatory term of 25 years.

H.B. 1001

Patron: Ramadan

Enforcement of immigration laws; agreement with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Provides that the Superintendent of State Police shall seek to enter into a memorandum of agreement with United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as authorized under 8 U.S.C. § 1357(g), to permit the State Police to perform federal immigration law-enforcement functions in the Commonwealth after arrest of an alien.

H.B. 1035

Patron: Joannou

Eminent domain; lost profits and access.  Provides definitions for the terms "lost profits" and "lost access" and how to determine the amount of just compensation, which includes lost profits and lost access resulting from the taking, that must be paid for property taken by eminent domain. The bill has a contingent effective date of January 1, 2013, provided that the voters approve an amendment to Section 11 of Article I of the Constitution of Virginia at the 2012 November election. This bill incorporates HB 597.

H.B. 1060

Patron: Anderson

Arresting officer to ascertain citizenship of arrestee.  Supplements the existing law that requires sheriffs to make a query into legal presence when a person is "taken into custody" at a jail. This bill expands such inquiries by requiring that an arresting officer inquire of every arrestee whether he is in the country legally. The bill further provides that when a law-enforcement officer believes that the person is not legally present in the United States, he shall communicate to the judicial officer the facts and circumstances underlying his belief.

H.B. 1152

Patron: Massie

Threat assessment teams; criminal history and juvenile records.  Authorizes threat assessment teams established by private nonprofit institutions of higher education to receive health and criminal history records of students for the purposes of assessment and intervention.

H.B. 1160

Patron: Marshall, R.G.

Unlawful detention of United States citizens.  Prevents any agency, political subdivision, employee, or member of the military of Virginia from assisting an agency of the armed forces of the United States in the conduct of the investigation, prosecution, or detention of a United States citizen in violation of the United States Constitution, Constitution of Virginia, or any Virginia law or regulation.

H.B. 1224

Patron: Morefield

Transfer of property by VDOT; emergency.  Authorizes VDOT to exchange real property controlled by the Department in Tazewell County for private property owned by Steelsburg Properties LLC. The bill includes an emergency clause.

H.B. 1238

Patron: Farrell

Redirection of forfeited drug assets to construction of Commonwealth Public Safety Memorial.  Provides that between July 1, 2012, and July 1, 2014, state and local agencies may direct cash funds and proceeds from forfeited drug assets to the Virginia Public Safety Foundation to support the construction of the Commonwealth Public Safety Memorial. Funding decisions shall be made following an internal analysis that determines contributions will not negatively impact law-enforcement training or operations.

S.B. 685

Patron: Reeves

Criminal procedure; GPS tracking device.  Provides the authority and the protocol for a law-enforcement officer to apply for a search warrant to permit the use of a GPS tracking device.