Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Kaine on rights restoration

Tim Kaine's time as the Commonwealth of Virginia's chief executive is winding down and this morning on his WTOP radio show he had a message for Virginians who have old felony convictions.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who leaves office in January, today encouraged people with nonviolent felony convictions who have paid their debt to society to apply to have their voting rights restored.
Click here to read the entire article by Jim Nolan at the RT-D.

1 comment:

Paul Garber said...

We should have real reform on this issue. There should be automatic restoration of voting rights after the sentence is completed.

We say that after a sentence has been completed, the convicted person has "paid their debt to society."

I would support automatic reinstatement in cases where restitution has been fully paid to any victims. I see no logic to deny reinstatement to even felons who were convicted of violent crimes, provided that they served their sentence and had returned to a peaceful existence in society.