Mandatory minimum sentences have been controversial in Virginia since the 1990s, when many new mandatory minimums were added to the code. Now lawmakers are moving in the other direction.
Is assaulting a law-enforcement officer always a felony? A Virginia law mandating a felony sentence even for something as trivial as when someone throws an onion ring on an officer or spills a cup of water on a deputy’s shoes; that’s now in the crosshairs of the Virginia Senate, which voted Wednesday to get rid of that mandatory minimum sentence.
Republican Senator Bill Stanley says that’s a mistake.
“If you touch a police officer or a first responder, you’re going to jail. It’s called deterrence," Stanley explains. "And as many of you have stood on this floor and said previously, ‘We need this bill for deterrence.’ Well, this bill, this law is already in place for deterrence.”
Senator Jennifer McClellan, a Democrat from Richmond who’s running for governor, says the bill she voted for does not repeal the felony crime of assault on a police officer.
“It repeals the mandatory minimum so that we can trust our judges and our juries to look at the facts of the case and decide whether the punishment is proportionate to the crime," she says. "And that is part of what people are marching in the streets and demanding change for.”
The bill passed along party lines in the Senate, and now moves over to the House of Delegates.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
