THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 24, 1994 TAG: 9408240715
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
Virginia's stalking law is constitutional, a state appeals court ruled in upholding a conviction in one of the first cases prosecuted under the law enacted two years ago.
The state Court of Appeals said Tuesday that the law is neither unconstitutionally vague nor overbroad. A three-judge panel upheld Anderson L. Woolfolk Jr.'s conviction by a Louisa County jury for stalking his former wife. He was sentenced to six months in jail.
The appeal court's first ruling on the stalking law comes a few months after the General Assembly reworded the 1992 law because of concerns about its constitutionality.
``We debated this endlessly,'' said Sen. Edgar S. Robb, a Charlottesville Republican who sponsored the revision even though he thought the original law was constitutional.
``It was more a practical matter because some of these magistrates were not comfortable with the law that was written,'' he said.
KEYWORDS: STALKING LAW RULING by CNB