Virginia House Bill 1278 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: Introduced on January 20 2012 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2012-02-14 - House: Left in Courts of Justice
Pending: House Courts of Justice Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [HTML]

Petitions for writs of actual innocence. Provides that for petitions for writs of actual innocence in the case of both biological and nonbiological evidence, each may be brought for any felony and upon any plea. The bill also provides that, for both writs, the petitioner shall allege that the new evidence (had it been available at trial) would have created in a rational trier of fact reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the petitioner as opposed to the current required allegation that the evidence "will prove that no rational trier of fact could have found proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." For the writ based on nonbiological evidence, the bill removes the limit that only one writ per conviction may be filed.

Writ of actual innocence; person convicted of felony may petition Supreme Court.

Sen. Joseph Morrissey [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2012-02-14		House: Left in Courts of Justice
2012-02-08		House: Subcommittee recommends laying on the table by voice vote
2012-01-24		House: Assigned Courts sub: #1 Criminal
2012-01-20		House: Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
2012-01-20		House: Presented and ordered printed 12104223D

Chapter	Article	Section	Citation Type	Statute Text
19	2	327.10	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	327.11	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	327.2	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	327.3	(n/a)	See Bill Text

Type	Source
Summary	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+sum+HB1278
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+HB1278+hil