SEARCH SITE
VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL
- Code of Virginia
- Virginia Administrative Code
- Constitution of Virginia
- Charters
- Authorities
- Compacts
- Uncodified Acts
- RIS Users (account required)
SEARCHABLE DATABASES
- Bills & Resolutions
session legislation - Bill Summaries
session summaries - Reports to the General Assembly
House and Senate documents - Legislative Liaisons
State agency contacts
ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
- Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
- Summaries: Since 1994
Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2010 SESSION
Reynolds (Chairman), Norment, Howell, McDougle, Hurt, Deeds, McEachin
Clerk: Angi Murphy
Date of Meeting: January 25, 2010
Time and Place: 4:00 PM, Senate Room A
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Patron: Quayle
Penalty for certain crimes against adults 60 years of age or older. Increases criminal penalties when the victim of the offense is 60 years of age or older and the offender knows or reasonably should know the victim of the offense is 60 years of age or older, as follows: Any person who commits a grand larceny shall be punished by a term of imprisonment of not less than two nor more than 20 years. Any person who obtains money by false pretenses is guilty of a Class 3 felony. Any person who signs another's name to a writing is guilty of a Class 4 felony. Any person who commits an identity theft resulting in financial loss of greater than $200 is guilty of a Class 5 felony. Any person who commits a second or subsequent offense pursuant to § 18.2-213.2 shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two years, in addition to the punishment provided for such offense.
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.
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.
Patron: Hurt
Juvenile court; interlocutory appeals by Commonwealth. Allows the Commonwealth to appeal a juvenile court suppression ruling to circuit court and the Court of Appeals. Upon the motion of the Commonwealth the juvenile court must stay the proceedings and issue a written statement of its findings of law and relevant facts in support of its suppression ruling and submit the case to the circuit court for a de novo hearing. The hearing has priority on the circuit court's docket and if it upholds the suppression ruling, the Commonwealth may appeal to the Court of Appeals. The bill applies in preliminary hearings, transfer hearings and trials in juvenile court where the offense would be a felony if committed by an adult and to rulings prohibiting the use of certain evidence on the grounds that the evidence was obtained in violation of the provisions of the Fourth, Fifth or Sixth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States or Article I, Section 8, 10 or 11 of the Constitution of Virginia prohibiting illegal searches and seizures and protecting rights against self-incrimination.
The bill also allows the time limitations on secure detention to be extended for the Commonwealth's appeal and provides that written court decisions of the Court of Appeals shall not contain the first or last name of the juvenile.
Patron: Hurt
Bail terms set by court on a capias to be honored by magistrate. Provides that a magistrate who is to set the terms of bail of a person arrested and brought before him on a capias shall do so in accordance with the order of the court that issued the capias, if the court so orders.
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.
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.
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.
Patron: Herring
Crimes against incapacitated or elder adults; penalty. Provides that any person who commits an offense set forth in Chapter 4 (crimes against the person), Chapter 5 (crimes against property), or Chapter 6 (crimes involving fraud) of Title 18.2, knowing or having reason to know that the victim of the offense is an incapacitated or elder adult is guilty of a separate and distinct Class 1 misdemeanor if the underlying offense is a misdemeanor and a separate and distinct Class 6 felony if the underlying offense is a felony. The bill adds that if the offender is a person responsible for the care of the victim, punishment for a misdemeanor shall include a mandatory minimum term of confinement of 30 days, and punishment for a felony shall include a mandatory minimum term of confinement of six months.
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.
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.
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.