Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 24, 1994 TAG: 9402240223
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Del. Julia Connally, D-Arlington, said she suspected her bill was in trouble when Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, chairman of the committee, announced he was sending it to the "taxation subcommittee."
"I didn't think it was good news," she said. "It just had a bad ring to it."
Connally's bill would have allowed a random number instead of the Social Security number to be used on drivers' licenses. She said the bill is designed to protect the driver's privacy and to prevent fraud.
Many merchants won't accept a check unless the customer shows his driver's license and allows the number to be recorded on the check.
"When you put the Social Security number on a check, that gives a lot of people access to bank account information" and other data that should be private, Connally told the committee.
A clever crook can even use the number "to divert funds," she said.
William Coiner of the Virginia Retail Merchants Association argued that the bill just "creates another number in this number-filled society" and would make it harder for merchants to guard against check-bouncers.
In other action, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee endorsed a bill allowing lethal injection executions and began examining a bill sponsored by Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, to crack down on drunken drivers.
Some committee members asked for more time to study the anti-drunken-driving bill. Cranwell agreed, "as long as it's a good-faith effort to educate yourselves and not an attempt to deep-six the bill."
The bill would lower from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent the blood-alcohol level for prosecuting a driving under the influence charge. For drivers under 21, the level would be reduced to 0.02 percent.
The measure also would require immediate seven-day license suspension when a person is arrested for DUI. Anyone caught driving on a license suspended for a previous drunken-driving conviction would have his car impounded for at least 30 days.
"What we're trying to do is get at both ends of the problem - the first-time offender, and the problem drinker," Cranwell said.
Del. Phillip Hamilton's lethal injection bill sailed through the Courts of Justice Committee with little discussion. Sen. Elmo Cross Jr., D-Hanover County, was the only member voting against it.
Hamilton, R-Newport News, said half of the 36 states that have capital punishment use lethal injection. Seven others give the inmate a choice between lethal injection and another method.
Hamilton's bill would require the inmate to choose 15 days before execution whether he wanted to die by lethal injection or electrocution.
This is the fourth year Hamilton has proposed the bill.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.