VA HB 295
deadAggravated murder; adds correctional officers to definition, punishment.
Virginia · 2026 Regular Session · lower
Subscribe in a feed reader. The feed covers recorded actions from the last 30 days; Bill Commons may record an action after it happened at the legislature.
Quick answers
Did VA HB 295 pass?
No. VA HB 295 did not pass — it was defeated or died in the legislative process. Latest recorded action (2026-02-25): Failed to report (defeated) in Courts of Justice (7-Y 8-N)
What is VA HB 295 about?
Aggravated murder defined; correctional officers; punishment. Adds to the definition of aggravated murder, which is a Class 1 felony, the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a correctional officer, defined in relevant law, when such killing is for the purpose of interfering with the performance of his official duties. The bill also provides that where the offender was 18 years of age or older at the time of the offense, the punishment shall be no less than a mandatory minimum term of confinement for life.
Who sponsors VA HB 295?
Mitchell Cornett is the primary sponsor of VA HB 295.
Description
Aggravated murder defined; correctional officers; punishment. Adds to the definition of aggravated murder, which is a Class 1 felony, the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a correctional officer, defined in relevant law, when such killing is for the purpose of interfering with the performance of his official duties. The bill also provides that where the offender was 18 years of age or older at the time of the offense, the punishment shall be no less than a mandatory minimum term of confinement for life.
- Introduced
- 2026-01-09
- Latest action
- 2026-02-25 — Failed to report (defeated) in Courts of Justice (7-Y 8-N)
- Bill type
- bill
- Last updated
- —
Sponsors
- Mitchell Cornettprimary
Committees
Not provided by source.
Action timeline
Newest first
2026-02-25
Failed to report (defeated) in Courts of Justice (7-Y 8-N)
committee-failure
2026-02-18
Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
referral-committee
2026-02-18
Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading)
2026-02-17
Read third time and passed House (87-Y 7-N 0-A)
passage,reading-3
2026-02-16
Read second time and engrossed
reading-2
2026-02-15
Read first time
reading-1
2026-02-13
Reported from Courts of Justice (13-Y 8-N)
committee-passage
2026-02-11
Subcommittee recommends reporting (10-Y 0-N)
2026-02-07
Assigned HCJ sub: Criminal
referral-committee
2026-01-17
Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB295)
2026-01-15
Fiscal Impact statement From VCSC (1/15/2026 1:16 pm)
2026-01-12
Fiscal Impact statement From VCSC (1/12/2026 11:03 am)
2026-01-09
Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
referral-committee
2026-01-09
Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26103862D
filing,introduction
Versions
Documents
Votes
Subcommittee recommends reporting
2026-02-11 · pass · 10-0
Member-level votes (10)
- Vivian E. Watts: yes
- Karrie K. Delaney: yes
- Phil M. Hernandez: yes
- Rae Cousins: yes
- Katrina Callsen: yes
- Leslie Chambers Mehta: yes
- Charlie Schmidt: yes
- Wren M. Williams: yes
- Will Davis: yes
- Madison Whittle: yes
Reported from Courts of Justice
2026-02-13 · pass · 13-8
Member-level votes (22)
- Patrick A. Hope: no
- Michelle Lopes Maldonado: yes
- Vivian E. Watts: yes
- Marcus B. Simon: no
- Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr.: no
- Karrie K. Delaney: yes
- Phil M. Hernandez: yes
- Rae Cousins: no
- Atoosa R. Reaser: no
- Katrina Callsen: no
- Karen Keys-Gamarra: no
- Leslie Chambers Mehta: yes
- Karen R. "Kacey" Carnegie: yes
- Virgil Thornton: no
- Charlie Schmidt: yes
- Terry G. Kilgore: yes
- James A. "Jay" Leftwich: not voting
- Jason S. Ballard: yes
- Wren M. Williams: yes
- Will Davis: yes
- Madison Whittle: yes
- Justin Pence: yes
H VOTE:
2026-02-17 · pass · 86-7
Member-level votes (99)
- Jessica L. Anderson: yes
- Bonita G. Anthony: yes
- Alex Q. Askew: yes
- Terry L. Austin: yes
- Jason S. Ballard: yes
- Robert S. Bloxom, Jr.: yes
- Gretchen M. Bulova: yes
- Katrina Callsen: yes
- Karen R. "Kacey" Carnegie: yes
- Betsy B. Carr: no
- Stacey Annie Carroll: yes
- Mike A. Cherry: yes
- Nadarius E. Clark: not voting
- Laura Jane Cohen: yes
- Joshua G. Cole: yes
- Nicole Cole: yes
- Kelly K. Convirs-Fowler: yes
- Mitchell Cornett: yes
- Rae Cousins: yes
- Will Davis: yes
- Karrie K. Delaney: yes
- Lindsey Dougherty: yes
- Mark C. Downey: yes
- Michael B. Feggans: yes
- Hyland F. "Buddy" Fowler, Jr.: yes
- Lily V. Franklin: yes
- Margaret A. Franklin: yes
- Debra D. Gardner: yes
- Thomas A. Garrett, Jr.: yes
- Jackie H. Glass: yes
- Timothy P. Griffin: yes
- Elizabeth R. Guzman: yes
- Karen Hamilton: yes
- C.E. Cliff Hayes, Jr.: yes
- Dan I. Helmer: yes
- Rozia A. Henson, Jr.: no
- Phil M. Hernandez: yes
- Charniele L. Herring: yes
- M. Keith Hodges: yes
- Patrick A. Hope: no
- Hillary Pugh Kent: yes
- Karen Keys-Gamarra: yes
- Terry G. Kilgore: yes
- Barry D. Knight: not voting
- Paul E. Krizek: yes
- Amy J. Laufer: yes
- James A. "Jay" Leftwich: yes
- Destiny LeVere Bolling: yes
- Alfonso H. Lopez: yes
- Michelle Lopes Maldonado: yes
- Marty Martinez: yes
- John Chilton McAuliff: not voting
- Adele Y. McClure: yes
- Garrett McGuire: yes
- Ellen H. McLaughlin: yes
- Joseph P. McNamara: yes
- Delores L. McQuinn: yes
- Leslie Chambers Mehta: yes
- James W. Morefield: yes
- May Nivar: yes
- Delores Oates: yes
- Israel D. O'Quinn: yes
- Justin Pence: yes
- Eric Phillips: yes
- Kimberly Pope Adams: yes
- Marcia S. "Cia" Price: no
- Sam Rasoul: no
- Atoosa R. Reaser: yes
- David A. Reid: yes
- Chris S. Runion: yes
- Charlie Schmidt: yes
- Don Scott: yes
- Phillip A. Scott: yes
- Holly M. Seibold: not voting
- Briana D. Sewell: yes
- Irene Shin: not voting
- Marcus B. Simon: yes
- Shelly A. Simonds: yes
- JJ Singh: yes
- Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr.: yes
- Anne Ferrell Tata: yes
- Joshua E. Thomas: yes
- Virgil Thornton: yes
- Luke E. Torian: no
- Kathy K.L. Tran: no
- H. Otto Wachsmann, Jr.: yes
- Wendell S. Walker: yes
- Jeion A. Ward: not voting
- R. Lee Ware: yes
- Vivian E. Watts: yes
- Michael J. Webert: yes
- Madison Whittle: yes
- Bill Wiley: yes
- Rodney T. Willett: yes
- Wren M. Williams: yes
- Tony O. Wilt: yes
- Thomas C. Wright, Jr.: yes
- Scott A. Wyatt: yes
- Eric R. Zehr: yes
Reported from Courts of Justice
2026-02-25 · fail · 7-8
Member-level votes (15)
- Scott A. Surovell: no
- Mark D. Obenshain: yes
- Ryan T. McDougle: yes
- R. Creigh Deeds: no
- Richard H. Stuart: yes
- William M. Stanley, Jr.: yes
- Jennifer B. Boysko: no
- Mark J. Peake: yes
- Jennifer D. Carroll Foy: no
- Russet Perry: yes
- Saddam Azlan Salim: no
- Barbara A. Favola: no
- Glen H. Sturtevant, Jr.: yes
- Kannan Srinivasan: no
- Michael J. Jones: no
Related bills
No related bills recorded for this bill.
Official source
Attribution
Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T05:35:59.552682Z
Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:
Session-wide evidence can include changes to other bills:
Use this data
Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=VA&identifier=HB 295. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.
Known limitations
- Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
- Committee referrals are not yet captured.
See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.