Category: Virginia Assembly

BY LAUREN ANNE MERKEL
STAFF WRITER
THE CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE

Hanover Republican Del. Frank Hargrove represents a party and part of the state that generally supports capital punishment.

He doesn't.

"The death penalty is inappropriate," he said.

He wasn't always so convinced, but he did have misgivings early on.
"When I came down here originally, in '82, I was uneasy about capital punishment at that time," Hargrove said.

Although there were numerous times that he voted in favor of the death penalty,
Hargrove said he "never felt good about it."

Hargrove recollected a time when he saw a picture of people eating their lunch while attending a public hanging. The picture has stayed in his memory through all of this time, which is part of the reason why he said he called for a bill in the mid 1980s to reinstitute public hangings. He felt that capital punishment in general was not enough of a deterrent, and making it public would be.

The bill did not go anywhere, and after that he continued, "unfortunately," he said, to support capital punishment legislation.

"I was warned it would be political suicide," Hargrove said when he finally decided he just didn't like it, and wanted it changed.

"It turns out there were no political consequences for me, personally," he said.

Each year, Hargrove submits bills to the General Assembly to revoke capital punishment, but each year they are killed. The same thing happened this year.

Hargrove believes that within the next four to five years, "we will see the death penalty done away with in Virginia." He said that the death penalty is being "chipped away" all over the country.

Hargrove said thinks there is a huge possibility of executing the wrong person, which makes him uncomfortable. Other legislators agree with him, he said, but they are concerned about the political consequences.

Hargrove prefers jail without parole, and voted in favor of House Bill Number
1311, which would add to the definition of capital murder, which includes eligibility for the death penalty.

Del. Chris Peace, R- Mechanicsville, also voted in favor of this bill, which passed the House. His reasoning is that people do not respect the laws and law enforcement, and that they should receive severe penalties. His wish is that society would not commit crimes to warrant the death penalty.

Peace said that he could see where Hargrove was coming from and respects that.

"Until there is an alternative" regarding how to improve upon the current system, this is the way it is, said Peace.

Jeff Caruso, the executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference, said, "VCC's [Virginia Catholic Conference] position is that we believe that use of the death penalty is never needed in our Commonwealth."

According to Catholic teachings, Caruso said the death penalty "can only be justified when non-lethal means are insufficient to protect society."

Caruso said because Virginia has "state-of-the-art prison systems" and life without parole for people convicted of murder, capital punishment is not needed. He said that legislators are "applying the accelerator (to capital punishment) when what they need to do is apply the brake."

According to Caruso and the Death Penalty Information Center website, Virginia has the most executions, behind Texas, since 1976, when the United States Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment.

BY CHRISTOPHER YATES
STAFF WRITER
THE CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE

RICHMOND – Sex offenders will have to register their email-addresses and
instant messenger screen names under legislation unanimously approved by the state Senate last week.

Supporters say Virginia is the first state in the country to introduce such legislation. Sen. Ryan T. McDougle, R-Mechanicsville, is the chief patron of the bill, SB
1071, "This changes the way we define child predators and punishment," McDougle said. "It will help prevent sex offenders from getting to our children."

Although the original bill included only e-mail, it was broadened to include instant messaging in order to encompass the evolving nature of the internet.

"If you are a sex offender and do not register and are found online," McDougle said, "you will be guilty of a new crime."

According to McDougle, MySpace.com agreed to delete accounts of sex offenders so that they could not be given the opportunity to be put into a position to interact with children.

Sexual predators have been getting a great deal of media attention. The attention,
McDougle says, has helped gain support for the electronic registry.

As the internet grows in popularity, the amount of crimes is also increasing. As a prosecutor in the 1990s, McDougle said that he saw the beginnings of crimes against juveniles on the internet but that they were hard to prosecute. With new laws such as the sex offender electronic registry, the law is catching up to the predators.

"Being able to track IMs and chat names will be very useful," he said.

Del. Robert J. Wittman, R-Montross, said that it is important to protect citizens by not putting sex offenders back into situations where there is concern.

"It is important to take a strong step by putting controls in place," Wittman said.
Creating new laws governing the internet has been growing over the past several years. Wittman said that the General Assembly puts measures in place in order to see how they will work.

"If issues arise with these new measures, legislation will follow," Wittman said.
"We must evaluate effectiveness and see if additional controls are necessary."

According to Wittman, the legislation will make the public aware of the ongoing fight against sex predators as well as not allow sex offenders where they might offend again.

Other bills have been introduced regarding sex offenders during the current General Assembly session. These include not allowing sex offenders on school grounds except for special circumstances and clarifying offenses for which an offender must be registered.