Virginia House Bill 794 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: Introduced on January 12 2016 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2016-12-01 - Left in Courts of Justice
Pending: House Courts of Justice Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Prefiled) [HTML]

Death penalty; severe mental illness. Provides that a defendant in a capital case who had a severe mental illness, which is defined in the bill, at the time of the offense is not eligible for the death penalty. The bill establishes procedures for determining whether a defendant had a severe mental illness at the time of the offense and provides for the appointment of expert evaluators. When the defendant's severe mental illness is at issue, a determination will be made by the jury, or by the judge in a bench trial, as part of the sentencing proceeding, and the defendant bears the burden of proving his severe mental illness by a preponderance of the evidence.

Death penalty; severe mental illness.

Del. James Leftwich [R]

Del. Joseph Yost [R]

Date	Chamber	Action
2016-12-01	House	Left in Courts of Justice
2016-02-12	House	Continued to 2017 in Courts of Justice by voice vote
2016-02-12	House	Subcommittee recommends laying on the table by voice vote
2016-02-12	House	Assigned Courts sub: Criminal Law
2016-01-12	House	Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
2016-01-12	House	Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/16 16101718D

Chapter	Article	Section	Citation Type	Statute Text
19	2	264.3:1.3	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	264.3:1.4	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	264.3:1.5	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	264.3:3	(n/a)	See Bill Text
19	2	264.4	(n/a)	See Bill Text

Type	Source
Summary	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB794
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB794+hil