---
type: "Bill"
title: "Capital cases; replacing certain terminology."
description: "Replaces the term \"mental retardation\" in all of its various iterations with a corresponding iteration of the term \"intellectual disability\" for purposes of the statutes governing capital cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has held in"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 1352"
citation: "Virginia SB 1352 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Civil Remedies and Procedure", "Crimes and Offenses Generally", "Criminal Procedure"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Janet D. Howell"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2017-01-11"
last_action: "2017-02-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/36b0d609-93d6-4784-a233-cd5163404e28"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1352"
source_hash: "7fe5dac52642325d93d19f0a8fee6cf19a04fbe2177e246f827684ef2c9a24b8"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1352 (2017) — Capital cases; replacing certain terminology.

Replaces the term "mental retardation" in all of its various iterations with a corresponding iteration of the term "intellectual disability" for purposes of the statutes governing capital cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has held in

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0212)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0212)
2. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1352ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1352ER)
3. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103230D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1352)

## Votes

- Passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **21–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Janet D. Howell — primary (person)
- Jennifer L. McClellan — cosponsor (person)
- L. Louise Lucas — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103230D `introduction`
- **2017-01-11** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-01** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-02-06** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-06** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-06** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-10** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-13** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-13** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2017-02-15** Enrolled
- **2017-02-15** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-17** Signed by President
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 2/17/17
- **2017-02-17** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 24, 2017
- **2017-02-23** Approved by Governor-Chapter 212 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/36b0d609-93d6-4784-a233-cd5163404e28`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).