RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia sent a letter to the head of the state’s corrections department demanding that the agency apply a recent court decision ordering a man’s release from prison to others with similar cases so they might be let out too.
The Supreme Court of Virginia ordered the release of Jose Garcia Vasquez, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and a count of criminal gang participation, siding with him over the state in finding that the Department of Corrections wrongfully denied him earned sentence credits to be released early.
In a petition to the court, the ACLU of Virginia argued Garcia Vasquez earned credits for an early release but the department’s “erroneous interpretation” of a law allowing incarcerated people to earn credits at a quicker rate kept him in prison 18 months longer than he should have been.
The high court disagreed with the state’s argument that Garcia Vasquez’s conviction made him ineligible for the credits, finding the law did not exclude the “inchoate offense” — which primarily includes an attempt, conspiracy or solicitation of a crime — of conspiracy to commit murder.
The ACLU of Virginia is demanding that the corrections department broadly apply that reasoning to others in prison with similar convictions who might have earned enhanced credits but were denied.
“The Court rejected the Department’s argument that inchoate offenses are not distinct from completed offenses and that the phrase ‘any violation’ encompasses both completed and inchoate offenses,” ACLU of Virginia’s Legal Director Eden Heilman wrote to Department of Corrections Director Chadwick Dotson on April 24.
The reasoning from the court “applies not just to the offense of conspiracy to commit murder, but all inchoate offenses not explicitly” excluded in the law, all such convictions “are eligible to earn expanded sentence credits,” Heilman added.
“Pursuant to the decision in Garcia Vasquez, we hereby demand that the Virginia Department of Corrections recalculate the sentences of all eligible individuals in its custody with convictions for inchoate versions of the offenses” laid out in the law, Heilman wrote.
Geri Greenspan, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Virginia, said the organization has not received any information from the Department of Corrections about how many people this would impact or if they will apply the decision to the “broad range of offenses” the agency has been treating as ineligible.
“The reasoning of the court is very clear. We don’t think there’s any reasonable dispute about how this should be applied,” Greenspan told 8News in a phone interview. “We don’t know yet whether VDOC is going to be applying it that way or not.”
In the letter, Heilman asked Dotson for a response by May 1 with copies of policy changes, instructions or guidance in response to the court’s decision.
“Should the Department decline to apply the decision to all similarly situated individuals in VDOC custody, we intend to explore all available remedies, including, but not limited to, additional legal proceedings,” Heilman wrote.
Greenspan said the ACLU of Virginia can’t speculate on the next steps until it hears from the corrections department, but noted that a potential lawsuit is not “off the table.”
The Department of Corrections said it was processing 8News’ interview request but did not make anyone available for an interview or share a comment for this story by a Thursday deadline.
“We don’t think there’s any room for doubt, at this point, about what the department needs to do in order to comply with it,” Greenspan said.
Under Virginia’s earned sentence credit program, incarcerated people can shorten their sentences with good behavior and rehabilitation programs. A law passed in 2020 increased how many credits some can earn, with restrictions for certain violent crimes.
But two weeks before it took effect in July 2022, lawmakers approved a budget change from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) making those with mixed sentences – convictions for violent and nonviolent crimes – ineligible.
The ACLU of Virginia says the shift pulled the rug out from those who thought they were earning enhanced sentence credits to be released early before being told they were ineligible.
Garcia Vasquez’s case is not the only one involving the earned sentence credits that the Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled on. In a similar case brought forward by the ACLU of Virginia, the court ordered the release of a man named Steven Prease after finding he was wrongfully denied earned sentence credits for his attempted aggravated murder conviction.
Last year, the corrections department made a policy change in the wake of the Prease case to award incarcerated people enhanced credits if they were convicted of attempting, soliciting or conspiring to commit aggravated murder, robbery or carjacking.
The Virginia Supreme Court’s opinion granted Garcia Vasquez’s petition and ordered that the state release him from the Haynesville Correctional Center, which it did on April 19.
“It feels great for real, but I’m just trying to get used to the outside now,” Garcia Vasquez told 8News in a phone interview.
Garcia Vasquez said he was told by a friend while incarcerated that he was eligible for the enhanced earned sentence credits but that he was initially denied them by the corrections department, eventually filing his own petition to the Virginia Supreme Court.
He told 8News that he had a job the entire time in prison, was enrolled in college and electrical courses and got his GED while incarcerated.
“I know a lot of people out here think every person in prison is bad, where everyone in there is just a criminal, this and that, but when people go in there we actually work,” Garcia Vasquez said. “Not all of us but a lot of us work hard to earn…to get out and do something better with our lives.”
