By Tim Eberly
The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK, Va. — A senator from Northern Virginia has submitted a bill to change the state’s three-strikes law in the wake of a Virginian-Pilot investigation into its decades-long hold on nonviolent first-time offenders.
State Sen. Scott Surovell, a Democrat who represents parts of Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford counties, confirmed Tuesday that he submitted the proposed legislation on Monday. If passed, the amendment would direct that offenders could be deemed ineligible for parole under the three-strikes law only if they were out of prison between each of their three convictions.
“This three-strikes rule is a hangover from the so-called tough-on-crime policies of the ’80s and ’90s that overcriminalized, overpunished, and swept up people who we never intended to punish so harshly,” said Surovell, who was elected to the Senate in November 2015. “Hopefully, we can focus our most severe punishments on criminals who have a shown a history of violence and who have proven incapable of rehabilitation.”
The 1982 law that he’s seeking to amend allowed offenders to be deemed parole-ineligible even if they had never been to prison before and their three crimes were committed in a single spree. It states that offenders convicted of three “separate” offenses of murder, rape or robbery shall be deemed ineligible for parole.
The Virginian-Pilot’s report, published on Nov. 19, revealed that state officials interpreting the law converted young men from first-time offenders to three-strikers in one swift motion, and that plenty of these convicts had little or no prior criminal history. Most of the 41 three-strikers interviewed by The Pilot had committed robberies.
Days after that article’s publication, Surovell said in a phone interview with The Pilot that he would submit legislation to change the law.
Surovell’s amendment would affect the men – and at least one woman – who are still incarcerated for crimes committed between 1982 and 1995, when the state abolished parole and rendered the three-strikes law moot.
A new three-strikes law has targeted recidivists and only punished those who were “at liberty” – in other words, not locked up – between their convictions. But it didn’t help the three-strikers who lost their parole eligibility under the previous law.
That’s what Surovell’s amendment would address.
As many as 260 three-strikers from the 1982 law are in Virginia prisons now. And almost none of the inmates interviewed for The Pilot’s report were at liberty between each of their three offenses. Most have served prison terms longer than the typical first-degree murder convict in Virginia – and have years to go before they’re released, The Pilot reported.
Surovell’s proposed legislation states that three-strikers would be eligible for parole “unless that person was at liberty between the three convictions” and used a weapon during the crimes.
“From my perspective, it’s what the original three-strikes law was meant to be,” said defense attorney Evan Werbel, who represented one three-striker in recent years. “In my mind, it’s a good thing.”
The proposed legislation appears to have support among conservative lawmakers, too. Republican Del. Chris Jones of Suffolk previously said that he generally would support such a bill.
On Tuesday evening, Republican Sen. Frank Wagner of Virginia Beach said he’d support that legislation as it pertains to robbers. But he said he wouldn’t be comfortable letting out three-strikers who are murderers or child rapists. And he would want a steep penalty included for any three-strikers who got released and committed another crime.
“For some of those, the robberies and those kinds of things, I’d be very much open to it,” Wagner said. “Definitely with those caveats, I’d be supportive of it.”
©2017 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)