Law

The Virginia Supreme Court heard challenges Tuesday morning to the state’s plan to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from Monument Avenue. A group of property owners and a descendent of the family that donated the statue sued the state to keep the monument standing. Both appealed to the high court after a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled in October that the state has the authority to take it down.

Last month, legal aid groups sued Virginia’s Employment Commissioner on behalf of Virginia residents who either hadn’t received their unemployment benefits or whose payments were cut off unexpectedly.

On July 1, adults 21 and older can begin legally using recreational marijuana in the commonwealth. They can even grow their own marijuana plants at home. But there are still a lot of rules Virginians have to follow if they want to stay on the right side of the law.

Chesterfield County Sheriff Karl Leonard announced that he’s moving incarcerated people out of the Riverside Regional Jail, which was investigated after a series of deaths in 2019 and 2020.

Richmond City Council has agreed to start supplementing the salaries of lawyers in the city’s Public Defender’s office. They’ve set aside $500,000 in this year’s budget-- roughly half the amount the office asked for.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring debated challenger Del. Jay Jones (D-Norfolk) Wednesday night, during a televised forum in Arlington.

Richmond’s Task Force for the Establishment of a Civilian Review Board for police misconduct has kicked off a series of town halls where they’ll collect community input.

The Virginia Court of Appeals will consider the case of two men serving life in prison for the murder of a police officer, despite a federal jury’s ‘not guilty’ verdict. It’s a complicated case that highlights how federal and state criminal prosecutions are intertwined.

In Richmond, attorneys who represent people who can’t afford a lawyer are asking the city to help pay their salaries. Like many public defenders across the country, they say they struggle to keep lawyers on staff, which makes it difficult to provide equal justice for people accused of crimes.

After a jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd, the Virginia NAACP called the verdict a major accomplishment.