CRIME PANEL TO STUDY VOTING RIGHTS OF FELONS

RICHMOND -- With a significant death penalty reform under its belt this
year, the Virginia State Crime Commission will set its sights today on a
new project: voting rights for reformed felons.

An estimated one-fourth of adult black men in Virginia are disenfranchised
because of felony convictions, making the matter a top priority in the
Legislative Black Caucus.

Commission Chairman Kenneth W. Stolle, a Republican senator from Virginia
Beach, said he will form a task force to study the issue at today's meeting
in Richmond.

"There is a tremendously high level of frustration by legislators on both
sides of the aisle with the lack of accountability of the restoration
process now," he said.

"There are people that are applying that are not getting responses. They
don't know whether they're going to get their voting rights back, or what
the story is." Virginia has one of the toughest restoration laws in the
nation: People convicted of felonies -- including writing bad checks --
permanently lose the right to vote. The only way they can get it back is to
petition the governor.

About 270,000 Virginians can't vote because of felony convictions. The past
four governors have restored rights for an average of 122 people per year.
Gov. Jim Gilmore has done the fewest: 98 people after three years in office.

"Clearly, there is some dissatisfaction with this administration's handling
of the process," Stolle said.

A spokesman for Gilmore could not be reached.

Doing a study doesn't guarantee the legislature will change Virginia's
system for restoring voting rights. But it is a vital first step, and
recommendations with the Crime Commission's stamp on them tend to fare well
in the General Assembly.

That Stolle would initiate the study is noteworthy. A former Virginia Beach
police officer, he is a law-and-order Republican not known for bestowing
sympathy on criminals.

One year, when the Senate was considering a resolution about voting rights,
he held up its passage until colleagues agreed to delete a reference to
former felons having paid their debt to society.

Stolle still opposes automatic restoration of rights for people convicted
of violent crimes, including rape. But he said he felt compelled to
initiate a Crime Commission study because of legislators' frustration with
the process.

Norfolk Democratic Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, chairman of the Legislative
Black Caucus, lauded Stolle for initiating the study.

"It's something that's long overdue in order to bring Virginia into the
mainstream of America," he said.

Thirty-two states restore voting rights automatically, either when people
complete their sentences or after some waiting period. "There is no modern
rationale for Virginia not to subscribe to the same policy," Jones said.

Last year, Jones wrote a law designed to make the restoration process
easier by allowing people to petition local courts for restoration.

But the only way he could get the bill through the General Assembly was to
put limitations on it: The process is open only to people who haven't been
convicted of violent crimes or drug dealing, they have to wait five years
after completing their sentences -- including probation and parole -- and
the final say still rests with the governor.

Anything the Crime Commission recommends as a result of its study will have
to go through the same rigors, and then some. Because the governor's
authority over voting-rights restoration is enshrined in the Virginia
Constitution, lawmakers would have to put any change to a vote of the people.

Getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot would take several years,
meaning the earliest a change could take effect is 2005. And the last time
Virginia voters were asked to weigh in on this measure -- 1982 -- they
rejected change by a margin of nearly 2-to-1.