Virginia House Bill 1133 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: Introduced on January 13 2014 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2014-02-12 - Left in Courts of Justice
Pending: House Courts of Justice Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [HTML]

Death penalty; persons with mental disability and mental impairments ineligible. Provides that persons who are mentally disabled or mentally impaired are, like persons who are mentally retarded, ineligible for the death penalty. "Mentally disabled" is defined as a disability, originating at any age, characterized concurrently by (i) significantly subaverage intellectual functioning as demonstrated by performance on a standardized measure of intellectual functioning administered in conformity with accepted professional practice that is at least two standard deviations below the mean and (ii) significant limitations in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. This definition is identical to the current definition of mentally retarded with the exception that the disability need not have originated before the person was 18 years old. "Mentally impaired" is defined as a substantial disorder of a person's cognitive, volitional, or emotional processes characterized concurrently by a demonstrable and significant impairment in the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. The bill also provides that determinations of whether a person is not eligible for the death penalty due to mental disability, mental impairment, or mental retardation shall be determined by the judge before the commencement of trial. The defendant must give the attorney for the Commonwealth notice at least 60 days before trial of his intention to present evidence of mental disability, mental impairment, or mental retardation. Currently, the determination of whether a defendant is mentally retarded is made by either the jury or the judge at the same time guilt is determined and the notice to the attorney for the Commonwealth must be given at least 21 days before trial.

Death penalty; persons with mental disability and mental impairments ineligible.

Del. Patrick Hope [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2014-02-12	House	Left in Courts of Justice
2014-01-13	House	Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
2014-01-13	House	Presented and ordered printed 14103371D

Chapter	Article	Section	Citation Type	Statute Text
18	2	10	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	264.3:1.1	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	264.3:1.2	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	264.3:3	(n/a)	See Bill Text

Type	Source
Summary	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?141+sum+HB1133
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?141+ful+HB1133+hil