Virginia’s governor has signed legislation to provide resentencing relief for people with past marijuana convictions—even after lawmakers declined to adopt her proposed amendments to the legislation that would have significantly scaled back the scope of the reform.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) gave final approval to the bills, HB 26 from Rozia Henson, Jr. (D), and SB 62 from Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas (D), on Thursday.
Separately, lawmakers and advocates are awaiting the governor’s action on separate legislation to legalize recreational marijuana sales after her proposed amendments were similarly rejected by the House and Senate last month. The suggested changes to that legislation included delaying the start date for sales by six months, increasing taxes and instituting new criminal penalties for cannabis consumers.
The resentencing reform, meanwhile, creates a process by which people who are incarcerated or on community supervision for certain felony offenses involving the possession, manufacture, selling or distribution of marijuana will receive an automatic hearing to consider modification of their sentences.
Spanberger last month had sent lawmakers suggested amendments that would have required affected persons to proactively file petitions to get the relief instead of having courts proceed automatically. The Senate and House of Delegates, however,
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