RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Governor Glenn Youngkin has vetoed two bills advocates say would have helped people with developmental disabilities like autism.
The bills would have allowed people charged with assault and battery on a law enforcement officer to be found not guilty if it’s determined that their actions were the result of a mental illness, diagnosed neurocognitive or developmental disability.
“If your client is suffering from mental illness, has other mental health issues that caused the assault to occur, you can raise that as an affirmative defense and possibly the way it’s worded, possibly get your client found not guilty,” said 8News Legal Analyst Russ Stone.
Advocates say the bill was necessary to ensure people who can’t necessarily control their actions don’t face six months in jail, the mandatory minimum penalty for assaulting a law enforcement officer.
“Anybody that does what I do, does defense work has had clients charged with offenses like this who had mental health issues and you sometimes feel hamstrung in that the law doesn’t allow you to explore those as much as you like,” explained Stone.
However, in his veto statement, Governor Glenn Youngkin said the bills were “unnecessary because Virginia laws already provide protections for individuals who are not criminally responsible due to mental illness.”
Stone says while there are avenues to get cases dismissed, they all require help from the prosecutor, something which isn’t always guaranteed.
“There is a whole myriad of things that you can try to work out with the prosecutor,” Stone told 8News. “What this bill was trying to do was essentially say where is one where you don’t have to get the prosecutor to agree, you can do this on your own, assuming you can convince the judge.”
The bills passed along party-lines meaning Democrats won’t have the votes to override Youngkin’s vetoes when they reconvene in April.
