This past Friday, the Virginia House of Delegates voted narrowly (47-48-3) to reject Del. Jeff Bourne’s HB5013 (“Creates a civil action for the deprivation of a person’s rights by a law-enforcement officer and provides that a plaintiff may be awarded compensatory damages, punitive damages, and equitable relief, as well as reasonable attorney fees and costs.”). Following that vote, there was a tremendous amount of debate and discussion regarding how it happened and what to do about it. Well…apparently, the answer was for Del. Ibraheem Samirah (D) to motion to reconsider Friday’s vote – which he could do, since he had voted on the “prevailing side” (“nay”), and for the House of Delegates to vote again on the bill. This time, it passed 49-45-2 (see video, below). Now, on to the State Senate…
P.S. In addition to Del. Ibraheem Samirah (D), who went from “nay” to “yea,” it looks like Del. Kaye Kory (D) switched from abstain to yea; Delegates Cliff Hayes (D) and Kelly Convirs-Fowler (D) remained as abstentions; Delegates Steve Heretick (D) and David Bulova (D) remained as “nays”; Del. Shelly Simonds (D) went from a “nay” to not voting. Also note that there was first a 53-42-2, party-line vote on the motion to reconsider.
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