THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409150477
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Virginia cannot deny parole to the 7,500 violent offenders currently serving time in state prisons without violating state and federal law, state Attorney General James S. Gilmore said in an opinion issued Wednesday.
Abolishing parole retroactively would violate the federal Constitution's prohibition against imposing ex post facto laws (laws increasing the punishment of those who have already been sentenced), according to Gilmore.
Such a policy ``cannot be made constitutional by administrative or executive action,'' Gilmore said.
Gilmore's opinion, commissioned last week by Del. Franklin P. Hall, D-Richmond, is not binding. But it flies in the face of this week's proposal by Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer, the state's leading Democrat, ``to prevent early release for the violent criminals now locked up.''
Barnstorming across the state Tuesday, Beyer told audiences that Proposal X, Republican Gov. George F. Allen's plan to abolish parole, isn't tough enough because it applies only to those who commit offenses after the passage of the bill.
``Virginia can't wait,'' said Beyer, a probable candidate for the 1997 gubernatorial race. ``If ending early release is an important idea, it is important now.''
Beyer had suggested accomplishing his proposal by revising parole and good-time guidelines instead of by statute - the same method Gilmore says cannot ``make'' such a policy constitutional.
Allen ran for office last year on a platform of abolishing parole and has been pushing the idea ever since. Lawmakers are scheduled to consider his plan in a special session beginning Monday.
Beyer's announcement, made less than a week before the session, was largely viewed as an attempt by the Democrats to upstage the Republicans politically by being even tougher than the governor.
``This is an age politically where, if you are tough on crime, then I've got to be tougher,'' said Samuel Glascock, a former delegate who served on a Democratic commission that has endorsed an alternative to Proposal X.
``No matter what you float out, I've got to be tougher than you. No matter what I float out, you've got to be tougher than me. You've got to wonder where it all leads.''
Beyer did not return phone calls Wednesday evening. Earlier in the day, however, Democratic strategist Paul Goldman predicted that Gilmore would decide that Beyer's proposal was unconstitutional and accused the Republicans of ``playing politics with the law.''
``They're being very clever,'' said Goldman. ``The fact of the matter is, it's not unconstitutional. They've got no case. They could say, `Well, . . . a court might find it unconstitutional, but what do we have to lose by trying?' I think it's totally political. They want to let these guys out and then blame it on the Democrats and then not have to deal with the consequences of their own plan.''
Democrats have complained that Allen will escape the political consequences of Proposal X because his term will expire before the plan's effects become apparent.
KEYWORDS: PAROLE VIRGINIA SERIES by CNB