THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, November 1, 1994              TAG: 9411010282
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                           LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines

DECKER, 2 OTHER LAWYERS NAMED TO SENTENCING PANEL

Three lawyers who worked in Democratic administrations were appointed Monday to the sentencing commission established by Republican Gov. George Allen's legislation abolishing parole.

House of Delegates Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr., D-Norfolk, named Peter G. Decker Jr. of Norfolk, H. Lane Kneedler of Charlottesville and Bobby Norris Vassar of Richmond to the Virginia Sentencing Commission.

The 17-member panel will develop discretionary sentencing guidelines for use by judges in felony cases.

The guidelines will apply to crimes committed after Jan. 1, when the bill abolishing parole takes effect.

DECKER WAS A MEMBER of the Board of Corrections for more than a decade and was its chairman from 1987 to 1993. He also has served on the Virginia Board of Education.

KNEEDLER WAS chief deputy attorney general for Democrat Mary Sue Terry, who lost to Allen in the governor's race, from 1986 to 1992. He was a member of a legislative commission that developed a parole abolition plan rivaling the Allen plan passed by the General Assembly in September.

VASSAR, SENIOR COUNSEL and legislative director for U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd District, was chairman of the Virginia Parole Board from 1982 to 1987.

He also has served as the state's acting secretary of health and human resources.

The three join four former members of Allen's parole abolition commission on the panel. Allen appointed former federal prosecutor Richard Cullen of Richmond, Danville Commonwealth's Attorney William Fuller, Richmond City Manager Robert Bobb and victims' rights advocate Jo Ann Bruce of Hanover County last week.

The chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court will appoint seven more members, and the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee will appoint two. Attorney General James S. Gilmore III also is a member.

KEYWORDS: SENTENCING COMMISSION

by CNB