RK ARCHIVE - Kaine Bans Smoking in Restaurants, Vetoes Death Penalty Expansion

Kaine Bans Smoking in Restaurants, Vetoes Death Penalty Expansion

By: Lowell
Published On: 3/26/2007 1:40:16 PM

Governor Kaine amended House Bill 2422 (Griffith) to ban smoking in all Virginia restaurants. As adopted, HB 2422 prohibits smoking in restaurants in the Commonwealth unless a restaurant posts signs stating "Smoking Permitted."
"I appreciate the patron's intent with this legislation, but felt amendments were necessary," Governor Kaine said. "I remain opposed to a widespread, general ban on smoking in public. This bill, with my amendment, is narrowly targeted to prevent smoking in restaurants, which is an important step to protect the health of both patrons and employees."

Good for the Governor on this one! Smoking in restaurants doesn't just harm other patrons, who can take their business elsewhere, it also hurts restaurant employees, who can't necessarily get another job so easily.

In addition:

The Governor vetoed House Bill 2750, House Bill 2347, House Bill 2348, Senate Bill 1116, and Senate Bill 1288, which expanded the list of crimes for which an offender is eligible for capital punishment.
"Virginia is already second in the nation in the number of executions we carry out," the Governor said. "While the nature of the offenses targeted by this legislation are very serious, I do not believe that further expansion of the death penalty is necessary to protect human life or provide for public safety needs."

Also excellent. The last thing we need in Virginia is an expanded death penalty, even as many other states are phasing it out.

Comments

I'm interested to see how (MV Democrat - 3/26/2007 1:51:48 PM)

all of Nothern Virginia's legislators vote on this one. The GOP carefully drafted this bill to avoid any uncomfortable votes.

It'll be nice to get some folks on record.

The tobacco bill is very weak (PM - 3/26/2007 2:03:39 PM)

Imagine if a company could waive OSHA protections for its employees by putting a little sign in the window. I can see it now at some big Dow chemical plant: "We permit our employees to breathe toxic fumes." Or a local construction company: "Our employees use substandard ladders -- but hey -- it makes more money for us."

Here's an interesting phenomenon. I used to smoke -- I quit about 6 years ago. I never have an urge to smoke, except when I've been trapped in a place where people are smoking. On occasion, when dreaming that night, I will be dreaming that I want a cigarette.

All Democratic candidates and officials should band together and take a pledge not to accept campaign money from the tobacco interests.

It's a shame (mkfox - 3/26/2007 2:17:16 PM)

that a generation after Europe banned capital punishment, the Supreme Court just ruled in recent years that sentencing minors to death is unconstitutional. Kudos for Kaine's decisiveness in an issue that's more about politics and revenge than justice.

And bars? (Vivian J. Paige - 3/26/2007 3:15:06 PM)

My understanding is that there is no definition of "bars" in the VA code, so banning smoking in restaurants also bans it in bars.

Hmmm

Death Penalty (MFleenor - 3/26/2007 8:49:42 PM)

I have mixed feelings about the death penalty vetos. On the one hand, I can understand vetoing the change on the triggerman rule. In the past, only the person that actually pulled the trigger, not an accomplice, could be sentenced to death. This new statute that Kaine vetoed would allow accomplises to be executed as well. I liked the old rule and believe this veto was proper.

On the other hand, the veto of expanding the death penalty to those that would kill a Judge or witness was wrong. These crimes strike such a blow against the criminal justice system that they were appropriate additions to the list of capital crimes.

There's no rule that the death penalty (Catzmaw - 3/27/2007 8:56:04 AM)

can't be applied in such cases already. It's the establishment of it as a separate class of crime that was at issue. But as soon as you start establishing a separate class of victim then you run into all sorts of issues involving how to apply the provision. If a judge happens to be at the gas station when it's robbed and he and the attendant are killed, does he get to be in a separate class by himself? You'd have to have a determination that the killer knew his status, just as the killer would have to know a murdered witness's status. This complicates the issues surrounding the case and for no good reason.