Virginia makes progress on felon voting rights, but fails to pass mandatory minimum reform

(The Center Square) – In the final days of the Virginia legislative session, lawmakers made progress on a proposed constitutional amendment to grant voting rights to felons, but failed to reach an agreement on an effort to significantly reduce the number of mandatory minimum sentencing rules in the state.

Under current law, a person convicted of a felony does not have political rights, including the right to vote, after he has been released from prison unless the governor or other appropriate authority restores his civil rights. The proposed constitutional amendment would automatically restore the voting rights of a felon after he is released, but would not allow voting for felons while they are incarcerated.

The compromise legislation passed the House of Delegates and the Senate with substantial Democraic support and opposition from most Republicans. Under Virginia law, a proposed constitutional amendment must be passed in both chambers of the legislature two years in a row with the exact same language and then be voted on via a ballot referendum before it can be enacted.

Saturday’s passage of the legislation was the first step and requires the same resolution to pass next year before going to referendum. If lawmakers fail to pass the same resolution next year, then the process would start over again.

Lawmakers also passed House Bill 2047, which would allow the admission of evidence regarding a defendant’s mental condition at the time of an alleged offense, including expert testimony, during a criminal proceeding. This includes testimony that shows a person was on the autism spectrum or had an intellectual or developmental disability.

This legislation passed both chambers with substantial support from Democrats and some support from Republicans. The majority of Republicans voted against the bill.

Lawmakers failed to pass legislation that would have enacted substantial reform to the state’s mandatory minimum sentencing rules. These rules, written into the Virginia code, require judges to enact minimum penalties for certain crimes. The legislation would have abolished many of these rules and instead granted discretion to judges to take unique circumstances into account.

Although the Democratic majority in both chambers supported reform, House and Senate lawmakers failed to reach an agreement in a joint conference committee before the legislature adjourned. Lawmakers also introduced similar bills during last year’s special session, but these bills did not advance as they were pending recommendations from the Virginia Crime Commission, which ultimately recommended abolishing all mandatory minimums.

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