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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
- Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
- Summaries: Since 1994
Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2020 SESSION
Chair: John S. Edwards
Clerk: John Garrett, Alec Fischbein
Staff: Kristen Walsh, C. Quagliato
Date of Meeting: February 17, 2020
Time and Place: 8:00 AM Senate Room A Pocahontas Building
Patron: Lindsey
Refusal of tests; restricted license. Allows a person convicted of a first offense of unreasonable refusal to have samples of his breath or blood taken for chemical tests to determine the alcohol content of his blood to petition the court 30 days after conviction for a restricted driver's license. The court may, for good cause shown, grant such restricted license for the same purposes as allowed for restricted licenses granted after conviction of driving under the influence if the person installs an ignition interlock system on each motor vehicle owned by or registered to the person and enters into and successfully completes an alcohol safety action program.
Patron: Collins
Substitute judges; powers and duties; entry of a final order. Gives a substitute judge the power to enter a final order in any case heard by such substitute judge for a period of 14 days after the date of a hearing of such case.
Patron: Levine
Fornication; repeal. Repeals the crime of fornication, i.e., voluntary sexual intercourse by an unmarried person.
Patron: Levine
Local law-enforcement agencies; body-worn camera systems. Requires localities to adopt and establish a written policy for the operation of a body-worn camera system, as defined in the bill, that follows identified best practices and is consistent with Virginia law and regulations, using as guidance the model policy established by the Department of Criminal Justice Services prior to purchasing or deploying a body-worn camera system. The bill also requires localities to make such policy available for public comment and review prior to its adoption. The bill requires the Department to establish a model policy for the operation of body-worn camera systems and the storage and maintenance of body-worn camera system records.
Patron: Lopez
Inquiry and report of immigration status; certain victims or witnesses of crimes. Prohibits law-enforcement officers from inquiring into the immigration status of a person who (i) reports that he is a victim of a crime or a parent or guardian of a minor victim of a crime or (ii) is a cooperating witness in the investigation of a crime or the parent or guardian of a minor witness to a crime. However, a law-enforcement officer is not prohibited from making such an inquiry if the parent or guardian has been arrested for, has been charged with, or is being investigated for a crime against the minor victim.
Patron: Hope
Definition of incapacitated person; particular diagnosis. Specifies that a particular diagnosis shall not alone be sufficient evidence that an individual is an incapacitated person within the meaning of the definition of incapacitated person.
Patron: Price
Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Grant Fund and Program; creation. Establishes the Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Grant Fund and Program, to be administered by the Department of Criminal Justice Services, for the purpose of awarding grants to the Cities of Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, and Roanoke for the purpose of performing community assessments for youth and gang violence prevention. Grants are to be awarded in an amount of $25,000 to each city to perform such an assessment. No more than $150,000 per year shall be allocated by the program.
Patron: Mullin
Virginia sexual assault forensic examiner coordination program. Establishes the Virginia sexual assault forensic examiner coordination program within the Department of Criminal Justice Services. The bill provides that the program shall create and coordinate an annual statewide sexual assault forensic nurse examiner training program; coordinate the development and enhancement of sexual assault forensic examiner programs across the Commonwealth; participate in the development of hospital protocols and guidelines for treatment of survivors of sexual assault; coordinate and strengthen communications among sexual assault nurse examiner medical directors, sexual assault response teams, and hospitals for existing and developing sexual assault nurse examiner programs; provide technical assistance for existing and developing sexual assault forensic examiner programs, including local sexual assault forensic examiner training; create, maintain and share a statewide list, updated biannually, that includes pertinent information regarding sexual assault forensic examiners and nurse examiners; create sexual assault nurse examiner recruitment materials for universities and colleges with nursing programs; and support and coordinate community education and public outreach, when appropriate, relating to sexual assault nurse examiner issues for the Commonwealth. The bill includes reporting requirements for the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Patron: Hope
Family day homes; storage of firearms. Requires that during the hours of operation of a family day home, all firearms be stored unloaded in a locked container, compartment, or cabinet and that ammunition be stored in a separate locked container, compartment, or cabinet.
Patron: Miyares
Limitations period; previously time-barred actions; sexual abuse; two-year time period to file. Creates a two-year time period, on or after July 1, 2020, but before July 1, 2022, within which persons previously time-barred from filing an action for injury to such person for sexual abuse occurring during the infancy or incapacity of such person due to the expiration of the statute of limitations may file such an action.
Patron: Hope
Recoupment. Specifies what actions qualify for statutory recoupment to include all defenses under a contract, whether such defenses are in law or equity. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference.
Patron: Bell
Exposure to a decedent's body fluids; testing. Provides that, in cases in which any law-enforcement officer, salaried or volunteer firefighter, or salaried or volunteer emergency medical services provider is directly exposed to body fluids of a deceased person in a manner that may, according to the then current guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, transmit human immunodeficiency virus or hepatitis B or C viruses, the next of kin of the deceased person shall be deemed to have consented to testing of the decedent's blood for infection with human immunodeficiency virus or hepatitis B or C viruses and release of such test results to the person who was exposed. Under current law, whenever a law-enforcement officer, salaried or volunteer firefighter, or salaried or volunteer emergency medical services provider is directly exposed to body fluids of a deceased person in a manner that may, according to the then current guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, transmit human immunodeficiency virus or hepatitis B or C viruses, consent for testing and release of the results must be obtained from the next of kin of the deceased person before testing may be initiated.
Patron: Mullin
Vital records; definitions. Expands the definition of "dead body," for the purposes of the administration of vital records and the prohibition against disposal or concealment, to include human bodies or body parts beyond the recently deceased.
Patron: Watts
Sentencing of juvenile tried as adult. Provides that a court, in the case of a juvenile tried as an adult and convicted of a felony, may depart from any mandatory minimum sentence required by law and suspend any portion of an otherwise applicable sentence. The bill also requires the court, when sentencing a juvenile as an adult, to consider the juvenile's exposure to adverse childhood experiences, early childhood trauma, or any child welfare agency and the differences between juvenile and adult offenders.
Patron: Bagby
Multi-jurisdiction grand jury; hate crimes. Adds the following to the list of crimes that a multi-jurisdiction grand jury may investigate: (i) simple assault or assault and battery where the victim was intentionally selected because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin; (ii) entering the property of another for purposes of damaging such property or its contents or interfering with the rights of the owner, user, or occupant where such property was intentionally selected because of the race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin of the owner, user, or occupant; and (iii) various offenses that tend to cause violence.
Patron: Simon
Homestead exemption; bankruptcy exemptions. Makes various changes to homestead exemptions, including providing that the official schedule of property claimed exempt filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court in a bankruptcy proceeding constitutes a sufficient writing to exempt such real and personal property from creditor process. The bill also provides that a householder may hold exempt from creditor process real or personal property that the householder or his dependent uses as a principal residence not exceeding $25,000 in value. The bill requires that the dollar amounts of the homestead exemption shall be adjusted triennially based on the United States Average Consumer Price Index.
Patron: Sullivan
Order of publication; electronic notice. Provides that a court may permit notice of an order of publication to be given by electronic means in addition to or in lieu of publication in a newspaper, under such terms and conditions as the court may direct. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference.
Patron: Bourne
Statute of limitations; sexual abuse. Provides that, for a cause of action accruing on or after July 1, 2020, every action for injury to the person resulting from sexual abuse shall be brought within 20 years after the cause of action accrues. Under current law, such 20-year limitation period applies when the sexual abuse occurs during the infancy or incapacity of the person.
Patron: Simonds
Protective orders; motions to dissolve filed by petitioner; ex parte hearing and issuance of order. Provides that, upon motion by a petitioner to dissolve a protective order, a dissolution order may be issued on an ex parte basis with or without a hearing and that a hearing on such a motion shall be heard by the court as soon as practicable. The bill further provides that a dissolution order granted on an ex parte basis shall be served upon the respondent.
Patron: Carroll Foy
Alcoholic beverage control; interdiction; habitual drunkard; repeal. Repeals the provision allowing a court to enter an order of interdiction prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages to any person who has shown himself to be a habitual drunkard. The bill also repeals the provision that disqualifies habitual drunkards from being able to obtain a concealed handgun permit.
Patron: Levine
Prohibiting sale, transport, etc., of assault firearms, certain firearm magazines, silencers, and trigger activators; penalties. Expands the definition of "assault firearm" and prohibits any person from importing, selling, transferring, manufacturing, purchasing, or transporting an assault firearm. A violation is a Class 6 felony. The bill prohibits a dealer from selling, renting, trading, or transferring from his inventory an assault firearm to any person. The bill makes it a Class 6 felony to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, possess, or transport silencers, and trigger activators, all defined in the bill. The bill makes it a Class 6 felony to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, or transport a large-capacity firearm magazine, as defined in the bill, and a Class 1 misdemeanor to possess such large-capacity firearm magazine. Any person who legally owns a large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator on July 1, 2020, may retain possession until January 1, 2021. During that time, such person shall (i) render the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator inoperable; (ii) remove the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator from the Commonwealth; (iii) transfer the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator to a person outside the Commonwealth who is not prohibited from possessing it; or (iv) surrender the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator to a state or local law-enforcement agency.
Patron: Batten
Compensating victims of crime; persons eligible for award; grandchildren. Includes grandchildren of the victim of a crime, who are alive at the time of the commission of the crime, in the list of persons eligible for compensation as a result of the death of the victim (i) as a direct result of the crime or (ii) due to the victim's trying to prevent a crime or attempted crime from occurring or trying to apprehend a person who had committed a crime in his presence or had committed a felony.
Patron: Roem
Department of State Police; establishment of cold case searchable database. Requires the Superintendent of State Police to establish and maintain a searchable electronic database of cold cases, available to the public through the Department of State Police official website. The bill defines "cold case" as an investigation into a homicide, missing person, or unidentified person case that has remained unsolved for at least five years after the crime occurred, the person went missing, or the unidentified body was found, whichever occurred last. The bill requires the database to include (i) the category of cold case and, in the case of a homicide or missing person, the name of the victim or missing person, unless prohibited or restricted by law; (ii) the location where the crime was committed, where the person was last seen, or where the body was found, if known; (iii) the date and time the crime occurred, the person was last seen, or the body was found, if known; (iv) the name and contact information of the investigating law-enforcement agency; (v) a brief summary of the crime or case; and (vi) any other information that the investigating law-enforcement agency determines is appropriate. The bill also allows the Department and submitting law-enforcement agencies to withhold such information, in whole or in part, from the database (a) as they deem necessary for investigative purposes, protection of privacy, or any other lawful reason or (b) upon request of the victim's or missing person's next of kin.
Patron: Krizek
Unauthorized use of electronic tracking device; penalty. Increases from a Class 3 misdemeanor to a Class 1 misdemeanor the punishment for a person who installs or places an electronic tracking device through intentionally deceptive means and without consent, or causes an electronic tracking device to be installed or placed through intentionally deceptive means and without consent, and uses such device to track the location of any person.
Patron: Adams, D.M.
Expectorating in public places; repeal. Repeals the crime of expectorating in public places.
Patron: Adams, D.M.
Profane swearing in public. Removes the crime of profane swearing in public, which is currently punishable as a Class 4 misdemeanor. The bill incorporates HB 132.
Patron: Adams, D.M.
Carrying concealed weapons; sling bow. Replaces "slingshot" with "sling bow" in the list of weapons a person is prohibited from carrying concealed. The bill also removes the Harbormaster of the City of Hopewell from the list of individuals who, while in the discharge of their official duties, or while in transit to or from such duties, are excepted from the prohibition on carrying a concealed weapon.
Patron: Mullin
Multi-jurisdiction grand jury investigations.