realjimjim
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RICHMOND
Fornication is a term more often used in church than in court these days, but it still occupies space in Virginias criminal code and allows the state to fine anyone who has sex outside of marriage $250.
An effort to strike that part of the law failed in a House subcommittee Wednesday over concerns it would create loopholes for related statutes dealing with incest and other sex crimes.
HB914 was one of the last of a handful of bills this session seeking to eliminate antiquated tenets of Virginia law. Lawmakers also have rejected others looking to decriminalize suicide and adultery.
The laws represent a past that not everyones let go of, a past that can take a long time to change, said Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
Suicide is a common-law crime with no set penalty. Adultery is a misdemeanor, punishable, like fornication, by a $250 fine.
While prosecutions for the latter offenses are rare, they still occur. There were eight convictions for fornication last year, said Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax County, who chairs the House Constitutional Law Subcommittee, which struck down HB914.
In Hampton Roads in 2011, one Newport News man was charged with two counts of fornicating, according to a Virginian-Pilot analysis of Virginia Supreme Court data. The charges ultimately were withdrawn.
The regions courts handled two adultery cases that year. One, in Virginia Beach, was found not guilty by a judge. The other, in Chesapeake, pleaded guilty and received a six-day jail sentence, but that case involved incest, according to the data.
Prosecutors sometimes use the charges in plea agreements when the original offenses were more severe, according to the subcommittees legal counsel. The U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated state laws penalizing sexual behavior between two consenting adults, Gastañaga said. Adultery instead is most often used as a weapon in divorce and custody proceedings, she added.
This is just cleaning up the code, Gastañaga said Wednesday in support of HB914. You put your hand on the Bible and took an oath to uphold the constitution. You didnt agree to uphold the Bible.
Fornication is a term more often used in church than in court these days, but it still occupies space in Virginias criminal code and allows the state to fine anyone who has sex outside of marriage $250.
An effort to strike that part of the law failed in a House subcommittee Wednesday over concerns it would create loopholes for related statutes dealing with incest and other sex crimes.
HB914 was one of the last of a handful of bills this session seeking to eliminate antiquated tenets of Virginia law. Lawmakers also have rejected others looking to decriminalize suicide and adultery.
The laws represent a past that not everyones let go of, a past that can take a long time to change, said Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
Suicide is a common-law crime with no set penalty. Adultery is a misdemeanor, punishable, like fornication, by a $250 fine.
While prosecutions for the latter offenses are rare, they still occur. There were eight convictions for fornication last year, said Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax County, who chairs the House Constitutional Law Subcommittee, which struck down HB914.
In Hampton Roads in 2011, one Newport News man was charged with two counts of fornicating, according to a Virginian-Pilot analysis of Virginia Supreme Court data. The charges ultimately were withdrawn.
The regions courts handled two adultery cases that year. One, in Virginia Beach, was found not guilty by a judge. The other, in Chesapeake, pleaded guilty and received a six-day jail sentence, but that case involved incest, according to the data.
Prosecutors sometimes use the charges in plea agreements when the original offenses were more severe, according to the subcommittees legal counsel. The U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated state laws penalizing sexual behavior between two consenting adults, Gastañaga said. Adultery instead is most often used as a weapon in divorce and custody proceedings, she added.
This is just cleaning up the code, Gastañaga said Wednesday in support of HB914. You put your hand on the Bible and took an oath to uphold the constitution. You didnt agree to uphold the Bible.
