Legislative special session to address court ruling only

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will reconvene the General Assembly for an Aug. 19 special session only to address a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that some commonwealth’s attorneys fear could jeopardize prosecutions.

The high court’s ruling last month in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts requires the government to make scientists who prepare lab reports in drunken-driving and drug cases available for cross-examination by defense lawyers.

Until the ruling, most courts allowed prosecutors to simply introduce a certification of lab results as evidence. Now, some prosecutors are concerned that they might have to delay or dismiss prosecutions if the state scientists are unavailable to testify because of a dramatically increased caseload.

According to the clerks’ offices of the House of Delegates and the Senate, it costs $11,400 a day to reconvene the 40-member Senate and about $20,000 per day to call the 100-member House back into session.

The governor said legislative leaders from both parties have agreed that the only bills heard during the special session will be those introduced on behalf of the administration to address the Supreme Court ruling.

The narrow focus is meant to foreclose the possibility that lawmakers could turn the session into a new debate over other hot-button issues, such as the closure of highway rest areas, additional federal stimulus money for the unemployed or the ever-constricting state budget.

Many state labs, including Virginia’s, already are taxed with heavy workloads and too few trained technicians, the number of whom might have to be increased to meet the new requirements of the court’s ruling.

Kaine said he will tap the Economic Contingency Fund to pay for the additional costs of allowing forensic professionals to testify.

“Certain immediate statutory changes will also be required to manage pending cases, and these changes will also be addressed during the special session,“ Kaine said in a statement.

During the special session, legislators will consider how to amend state law to accommodate the Supreme Court ruling. Among the options: allowing technicians to testify via teleconference; allowing prosecutors to receive delays in cases when there is a scheduling conflict; and requiring defense attorneys to provide advance notice of their intention to cross-examine the technicians.

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli of Fairfax County, the Republican nominee for attorney general, had pushed for a special session to address the issue.

The campaign of Cuccinelli’s opponent, Del. Stephen C. Shannon, D-Fairfax, this month called the idea “a [public-relations] stunt that would cost taxpayers money.“

Kaine said yesterday that Cuccinelli, Shannon, state Sen. A Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, and House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, were among the lawyer-lawmakers and administration and law-enforcement officials that he consulted to work through the problem.

The timing of the special session will help mitigate the costs. Many lawmakers will be returning to the Capitol on Aug. 19 for the annual joint meeting of the assembly’s money committees. At that meeting, Kaine will report on the state’s fiscal health and whether state revenue projections are in line with the budget for the upcoming year.

Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell said Kaine was justified in calling for the special session.

State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County, the Democratic nominee for governor, said a special session is needed. But he said he wants legislators to first reach a consensus on how to solve the problem.