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Fabio 5a13be122b Legislation: batch E — CA TN VA VT WA WI WV WY

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-07-06 17:28:36 -04:00

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legislature

session

identifier

citation

classification

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Bill

Writ of actual innocence; petition by convicted person.

Petition for writ of actual innocence. Provides that a person who was convicted of a felony or who was adjudicated delinquent by a circuit court of an offense that would be a felony if committed by an adult may petition for a writ of actual innocence based on biological evidence or nonbiological evidence regardless of the type of plea he entered at trial. Under current law, such person may petition for a writ based on biological evidence if he entered a plea of not guilty, and any person, regardless of the type of plea he entered at trial, may petition for such writ if he is sentenced to death or convicted or adjudicated delinquent of murder or a felony for which the maximum punishment is imprisonment for life. The bill also (i) allows a writ of actual innocence based on nonbiological evidence to be granted if scientific testing of previously untested evidence, regardless of whether such evidence was available or known at the time of conviction, proves that no trier of fact would have found proof of guilt of the person petitioning for the writ, provided that the testing procedure was not available at the time of conviction, and (ii) eliminates the provision that limits a petitioner to only one writ of actual innocence based on nonbiological evidence for any conviction. The bill provides that the petitioner must prove the allegations supporting either type of writ of actual innocence by a preponderance of the evidence. Currently, the petitioner must prove such allegations by clear and convincing evidence. Finally, the bill clarifies that the Attorney General may join a petition for a writ of actual innocence filed in connection with an adjudication of delinquency. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.

us/states/va

Virginia General Assembly

2020

SB 511

Virginia SB 511 (2020)

bill

enacted

John S. Edwards

2020-01-07

2020-04-09

openstates

ocd-bill/b989e710-4667-4a71-96d5-98a2f3e429a1

https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB511

2804efc911d1d2b234f9036d17d992d1402ea57b6b14560787a935b0956cc376

2026-07-01

https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump

2026-07-06

reported

legislation

bill

us-va

Virginia SB 511 (2020) — Writ of actual innocence; petition by convicted person.

Version chain

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

Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0994) (committee substitute) — source
Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB511ER) (committee substitute) — source
Engrossed by Senate as amended SB511E (committee substitute) — source
Impact statement from DPB (SB511) (committee substitute) — source

Votes

Reported from Courts of Justice with amendment (12-Y 8-N) — 12–8 (pass) · lower
Reported from Judiciary (10-Y 4-N) — 10–4 (pass) · upper
Reported from Appropriations (13-Y 9-N) — 13–9 (pass) · lower
VOTE: Passage (56-Y 44-N) — 55–44 (pass) · lower
Reported from Finance and Appropriations with amendment (15-Y 1-N) — 15–1 (pass) · upper
Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — 40–0 (pass) · upper
Constitutional reading dispensed (36-Y 0-N) — 36–0 (pass) · upper
Read third time and passed Senate (23-Y 17-N) — 23–17 (pass) · upper
House amendment agreed to by Senate (23-Y 14-N) — 23–14 (pass) · upper

Timeline

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

2020-01-07 Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20104713D introduction
2020-01-07 Referred to Committee on the Judiciary referral-committee
2020-01-08 Moved from Courts of Justice to Judiciary due to a change of the committee name
2020-02-05 Reported from Judiciary (10-Y 4-N) committee-passage
2020-02-05 Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations referral-committee
2020-02-06 Reported from Finance and Appropriations with amendment (15-Y 1-N) committee-passage
2020-02-10 Impact statement from DPB (SB511)
2020-02-10 Constitutional reading dispensed (36-Y 0-N)
2020-02-11 Read second time reading-2
2020-02-11 Reading of amendment waived
2020-02-11 Committee amendment agreed to
2020-02-11 Engrossed by Senate as amended SB511E
2020-02-11 Printed as engrossed 20104713D-E
2020-02-11 Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
2020-02-11 Read third time and passed Senate (23-Y 17-N) passage, reading-3
2020-02-14 Placed on Calendar
2020-02-14 Read first time reading-1
2020-02-14 Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice referral-committee
2020-02-19 Reported from Courts of Justice with amendment (12-Y 8-N) committee-passage
2020-02-19 Referred to Committee on Appropriations referral-committee
2020-02-21 Reported from Appropriations (13-Y 9-N) committee-passage
2020-02-24 Impact statement from DPB (SB511E)
2020-02-25 Read second time reading-2
2020-02-26 Read third time reading-3
2020-02-26 Committee amendment agreed to
2020-02-26 Engrossed by House as amended
2020-02-26 Passed House with amendment (56-Y 44-N) passage
2020-02-26 VOTE: Passage (56-Y 44-N)
2020-02-28 Passed by temporarily
2020-02-28 House amendment agreed to by Senate (23-Y 14-N)
2020-03-05 Enrolled
2020-03-06 Signed by Speaker
2020-03-07 Signed by President
2020-03-12 Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 12, 2020
2020-03-12 Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
2020-03-20 Impact statement from DPB (SB511ER)
2020-04-09 Approved by Governor-Chapter 994 (effective 7/1/20) executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/b989e710-4667-4a71-96d5-98a2f3e429a1. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).

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