Sen. Joe Morrissey

Personal property tax exemption; motor vehicleof a disabled veteran. Provides that one motor vehicle of a veteranwho has a 100 percent service-connected, permanent, and total disabilityshall be exempt from local taxes. This bill is the enabling legislationfor a constitutional amendment ratified by the voters of the Commonwealthat the November 2020 general election.

State Air Pollution Control Board; low-emissions and zero-emissions vehicle program. Directs the State Air Pollution Control Board to implement a low-emissions and zero-emissions vehicle program for motor vehicles with a model year of 2025 and later. Regulations adopted by the Board to implement the program are exempt from the Administrative Process Act and shall not become effective prior to January 1, 2024. The bill also authorizes the State Corporation Commission to exclude sales related to such vehicles from certain energy efficiency calculations.

Greenhouse gas emissions inventory; regulations. Directs the Department of Environmental Quality to conduct a statewide baseline and projection inventory of all greenhouse gas emissions and to update such inventory every four years. The bill requires that the inventory be published and included in the annual report of the State Air Pollution Control Board. The bill also authorizes the Board to adopt regulations necessary to collect data needed to conduct, update, and maintain the inventory. The bill exempts proprietary information collected by the Department from the mandatory disclosure requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

Housing Bill of Rights; housing protections; foreclosures; manufactured housing. Provides for various protections for homeowners and tenants of manufactured home parks, including (i) restricting the circumstances under which a court may order a person's primary residence to be sold to enforce a judgment lien; (ii) requiring localities to incorporate into their comprehensive plans strategies to promote manufactured housing as a source of affordable housing; (iii) requiring the Director of Housing and Community Development to develop a statement of tenant rights and responsibilities explaining in plain language the rights and responsibilities of tenants under the Virginia Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act; (iv) prohibiting a trustee from selling a property in a foreclosure sale without receiving an affidavit signed by the party that provided the notice confirming the notice was sent to the owner, with a copy of such notice attached to the affidavit; (v) increasing the notice period for a foreclosure sale from 14 to 60 days and requiring such notice to provide the grantor with information regarding housing counseling; and (vi) requiring the landlord of a manufactured home park to provide tenants who own their manufactured home information about housing assistance and legal aid organizations. The bill also requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to convene a stakeholder group to assist in the development of the statement of tenant rights and responsibilities. The provisions of the bill related to the specifics of the notice that is required before a trustee can sell a property in a foreclosure sale has a delayed effective date of October 1, 2021.

Board of Local and Regional Jails; powers and duties. Restores the authority of the State Board of Local and Regional Jails (the Board) to (i) ensure the development of long-range policies, programs, and plans for corrections services provided at the state and local levels; (ii) review and comment on all budgets and requests for appropriations for the Department of Corrections (the Department) prior to submission to the Governor and on all applications for federal funds; and (iii) monitor the activities of the Department and its effectiveness in implementing the standards and goals of the Board. Chapter 375 of the Acts of Assembly of 2011 repealed the Board's authority to perform these functions. The bill also provides to the Board the power and duty to (a) develop and establish operational and fiscal standards governing the operation of state correctional facilities; (b) make, adopt, and promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the laws of the Commonwealth pertaining to state correctional facilities; (c) develop and implement policies and procedures for the review of the death of any inmate that the Board determines warrants review that occurs in any state correctional facility; (d) establish minimum standards for health care services, including medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and behavioral health services, in state correctional facilities and procedures for enforcing such minimum standards; (e) review and approve the content and frequency of correctional officer training programs provided by the Department; and (f) collect and review information on disciplinary practices and trends in state, local, regional, and community correctional facilities and, as appropriate, adopt rules and regulations to improve disciplinary practices. The bill also increases from nine to 14 the number of members to be appointed to the Board and modifies the eligibility requirements for such members. The bill allows, despite such modifications to Board membership eligibility requirements, current members of the Board to continue serving for the remainder of the members' current, unexpired term. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.

Post-conviction relief; previously admitted scientific evidence. Provides that a person who was convicted of certain offenses, upon a plea of not guilty or an Alford plea, or who was adjudicated delinquent, upon a plea of not guilty or an Alford plea, by a circuit court of an offense that would be a covered offense if committed by an adult may petition the Court of Appeals to have his conviction vacated. The petition shall allege (i) the covered offense for which the petitioner was convicted or adjudicated delinquent; (ii) that the petitioner did not commit the covered offense for which the petitioner was convicted or adjudicated delinquent, nor engage in conduct that would support a conviction for a lesser offense or any other crime arising from, or reasonably connected to, the facts supporting the indictment or information upon which he was convicted or adjudicated delinquent; (iii) an exact description of the forensic scientific evidence and its relevance in demonstrating that the petitioner did not commit the covered offense; (iv) specific facts indicating that relevant forensic scientific evidence was not available or could not have been obtained in the exercise of diligence before the expiration of 21 days following entry of the final order of conviction or adjudication of delinquency or that discredited forensic scientific evidence was admitted at the petitioner's trial or adjudication of delinquency; and (v) that the admission of the discredited forensic scientific evidence or the absence of the newly available forensic scientific evidence was not harmless. The bill provides that if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the admission of the discredited forensic scientific evidence or the absence of the newly available forensic scientific evidence was not harmless, the court may grant the petition and vacate the petitioner's conviction, subject to retrial in the discretion of the Commonwealth. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2022, and an expiration date of July 1, 2026.

Correctional facilities; use of isolated confinement. Prohibits the use of isolated confinement in state correctional facilitiesand juvenile correctional centers. Isolated confinement is definedin the bill as confinement of a prisoner or juvenile to a cell, alone or with another prisoner or juvenile, for 20 hours or more per dayfor an adult or for 17 hours or more per day for a juvenile, otherthan for the purpose of providing medical or mental health treatment.The bill provides for exceptions for when isolated confinement maybe permitted in state correctional facilities and juvenile correctionalcenters. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2022.

Assault and battery; penalty. Eliminates the mandatory minimum term of confinement of six months for an assault and battery committed against a judge, magistrate, law-enforcement officer, correctional officer, person directly involved in the care, treatment, or supervision of inmates, firefighter or volunteer firefighter, or emergency medical services personnel. The bill removes simple assault from enhanced punishment and provides that the enhanced punishment applies for assault and battery only when it results in bodily injury. The bill also provides that a jury or the court may find any person charged with such offense (i) whose physical or mental capacity is diminished to the extent that he needs counseling or supervisory assistance or assistance with activities of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living or (ii) who has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, a developmental disability, or an intellectual disability, not guilty of such offense but guilty of a simple assault or assault and battery, punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill also provides that before any arrest, indictment, or service of a petition in the case of a juvenile is made for an alleged assault and battery against a law-enforcement officer, (a) such alleged assault and battery shall be investigated by another law-enforcement officer who was not the subject of such alleged assault and battery and (b) the arrest, indictment, or service of a petition shall be approved by the attorney for the Commonwealth.

Elimination of mandatory minimum sentences;modification of sentence to mandatory minimum term of confinementfor felony offenses. Eliminates all mandatory minimum sentencesof confinement from the Code of Virginia. The bill also providesa petition process for a person who was convicted or adjudicateddelinquent of a felony offense committed prior to July 1, 2021, exceptfor a Class 1 felony or any felony that was punishable by a mandatory minimum term of confinement for life, and sentenced to a mandatoryminimum term of confinement for such felony offense and who remainsincarcerated in a state or local correctional facility serving themandatory minimum term of confinement for such felony offense topetition the circuit court that entered the original judgment ororder to (i) suspend the unserved portion of such mandatory minimumsentence, (ii) place such person on probation for such time as thecourt shall determine, or (iii) otherwise modify the sentence imposed. The bill provides that such petition shall be filed by July 1, 2024.This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia State Crime Commission.

Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; Early Psychosis Intervention and Coordinated Specialty Care Program Advisory Board established. Establishes the Early Psychosis Intervention and Coordinated Specialty Care Program Advisory Board for the purpose of assisting the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services in expanding the provision of high-quality, evidence-based early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention services.