Assembly Takes On Kaine's Vetoes

Death Penalty, Smoking Are Newly Contentious in Va.

RICHMOND -- Virginia legislators will meet for a one-day session this week to settle two contentious issues that could alter the state's reputation for swift justice for killers and determine how much the tobacco industry still influences state politics.

At noon Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House and Senate will convene to consider dozens of bills Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) amended or vetoed.

Although it appeared for most of the spring that transportation would be the hot issue, Kaine says he has forged a compromise with Republicans that should avert a partisan fight.

Instead, much of the debate will probably center on Kaine's decisions to seek a restaurant smoking ban and to veto three proposals to expand the use of the death penalty to include accomplices and the killers of judges and witnesses. The House and Senate would have to approve the smoking ban and could vote to override Kaine's vetoes of the death penalty bills.

Legislators say the outcome of both actions is uncertain and could be decided by one or two votes. Some independent observers say the focus on the two issues is another indication that traditionally conservative Virginia is changing.

"It is a quite a transformation over the past generation of Virginia politics," said Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University. "If somebody had told me when I moved here in the early 1980s that we would be having a debate about a ban on some forms of the death penalty and a ban on smoking in public places, I would say, 'Not in my lifetime.' "

The outcome of the debate will probably reverberate into the fall, when all 140 legislators are up for reelection. The debate is being watched closely by advocates across the country, who say the General Assembly's decisions could serve as a model for other Southern states.

"I think it would be huge for the movement if a Southern tobacco-growing state and the home of a major U.S. tobacco-producing company were to take restaurants smoke-free," said Cathleen Smith Grzesiek, director of public advocacy for the American Heart Association, who was referring to the fact that Phillip Morris USA is based in Richmond.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said opponents of capital punishment are also paying close attention to Virginia. Virginia has executed more inmates than any other state except Texas since capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976.

The vote in the General Assembly occurs as other states are also considering expanding the death penalty -- including a proposal in Texas that would make repeat child sex offenders eligible even if they do not kill anyone.

"Virginia might send a message that a state that is clearly committed to the death penalty is not jumping into an expansion and is taking some caution," Dieter said

But Republican leaders, who say they believe they can use Kaine's vetoes against Democrats this fall, promise to get enough votes to override the governor. Two-thirds of each chamber must agree before a veto can be overridden, meaning the Democratic minority will play a big role in the outcome.