Rights restoration under Youngkin drops again

The report, required by the state constitution, shows that Youngkin restored rights to just under 2,580 individuals last year, down from just under 4,000 the year before, a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis found.

Virginia is the only state that says restoration of voting rights to anyone with felony convictions is subject to the discretion of the governor. Thirty-nine states restore voting rights when people leave prison or complete sentences, two allow inmates to vote, while seven others require a governor or judge to restore rights for people convicted of murder, rape or, in some cases, voting fraud or bribery. A federal appeals court has overturned Mississippi’s permanent ban on voting rights for people convicted of murder, rape, arson and various fraud and theft offenses.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican who held the office from 2010-14, began an effort to automatically restore rights in 2013 rather than follow the case-by-case approach to which Youngkin has returned. McDonnell’s move restored rights to 8,000 nonviolent felons. Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who held the office from 2014 to 2018 — and lost to Youngkin in 2021 — expanded automatic restoration to cover people who had completed their sentences, restoring rights to more than 173,000 individuals. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat who held the office from 2018 to 2022, expanded this further to include people on probation or parole.

Youngkin’s case-by-case approach that he formally adopted toward the end of his first year in office, in December 2022, is why last year’s rights restorations are down, said Shawn Weneta, policy and advocacy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.

“It raises questions about fairness and arbitrariness,” he said.

Weneta said the administration has not detailed the criteria the governor uses in deciding to restore rights.

“They talk about redemption and they talk about cutting red tape and more efficiency in government,” he said. “But this is more red tape, clogging up the system.”

Youngkin looks at each case

Under the process Youngkin adopted in December 2022, people disenfranchised because of a felony conviction must apply for restoration of their rights. They are given a form for this when leaving prison and there is an online application at the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s website. The form asks for details about an individual’s identity, felony convictions and current status with respect to probation supervision, court fines and fees owed and any orders about restitution to victims.

The secretary’s staff checks the individual’s criminal record with the Central Criminal Records Exchange and asks several state agencies to report on whether the person is in a state hospital, federal prison, under the supervision of a probation officer or awaiting trial on other offenses, said Macaulay Porter, Youngkin’s deputy communications director.

With that information, Youngkin and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Gee look at each case, including asking if the individual committed a violent crime, how recent the conviction was and the person’s conduct since the conviction, she said.

In the end, the governor restores rights or denies the application at his discretion, based on his judgment about whether the person will be a responsible citizen, she said.

Advocates challenge administration

Last year, the ACLU of Virginia, along with voting rights group Protect Democracy and law firm WilmerHale, sued the administration, election officials and some local registrars seeking a U.S. District Court ruling that denying people who have been convicted of felonies violates the 1870 federal law that readmitted Virginia to the union after the Civil War.

The Virginia NAACP has gone to state court, seeking an order under the state Freedom of Information Act for records about the rights restoration process.

This year, state Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, once again introduced a resolution to amend the state constitution to say that people convicted of felonies would have the right to vote once they leave prison. Democrats who lead the House and Senate chose not to take up the amendment until next year.

Passing a state constitutional amendment requires a multiyear process. Locke’s resolution would have to pass the House and Senate in 2025 and again in 2026 after the November 2025 legislative elections and then win voters’ approval in a statewide referendum. A governor cannot veto a resolution that seeks a constitutional amendment.

Update on Youngkin pardons

The annual report on pardons also shows the governor last year granted one medical pardon, releasing a prison inmate with a terminal disease, compared with two releases in 2022.

He granted one absolute pardon, on the grounds that George Edward Parker Jr. was in fact innocent of the misdemeanor assault for which he served five days in jail in 2001.

Youngkin also reduced the sentences of two inmates, but not by enough to release them from prison.

He reduced to a 50-year prison term Randell Hakeem Love Barkley’s sentence of three life terms plus 10 years. A Norfolk judge imposed the sentence in 2007 on charges of aggravated malicious wounding — shooting, stabbing or cutting someone with the intent to kill or maim them — as well as robbery, abduction, gang activity and use of a firearm.

He also reduced to 29 years and seven months the 60-year sentence a Suffolk judge imposed on Samuel Elbert Harris in 2000 for two robbery counts, carjacking, abduction, burglary and 20 larceny counts.

Neither pardon allows for a near-term release from prison, unlike the one conditional pardon Youngkin granted last year. It allowed John Earl McFadden Jr. to get out of prison after serving 16 years of an 88-year sentence for robbery, abduction and burglary. McFadden asked for the pardon so he could get a lung transplant.