If you are a reporter and wish to speak to a representative of the ACLU of Virginia, please call (804) 644-8080 or email press@acluva.org. If you wish to receive our press releases, please send your name, outlet and contact information to press@acluva.org with the subject line “Press Release Distribution.”
"Potentially hundreds of people who’ve worked for years to earn their release will finally get it, and we’re thrilled that Mr. Puryear is home with his family," said Vishal Agraharkar, ACLU-VA Senior Supervising Attorney.
"This election was a critical step to protect Virginians’ civil rights and civil liberties, and a clear repudiation of attempts to roll them back," said ACLU-VA Executive Director Mary Bauer.
"Although we’re relieved that our client is finally free, he should never have been illegally imprisoned in the first place,” said Sophia Gregg, Immigrants’ Rights Attorney for the ACLU of Virginia.
“Virginia governors have historically restored Virginians’ voting rights – not removed them," said ACLU-VA Executive Director Mary Bauer. “No administration should get to pick and choose who gets to vote, and that includes this one."
The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed the VADOC's interpretation of budget language that restricted eligibility for expanded earned sentence credits. Our cases on inchoate offenses remain pending.
Today the ACLU of Virginia filed two new cases challenging the Virginia Department of Corrections’ (VADOC) refusal to award expanded sentence credits to people with certain convictions, unlawfully extending their incarceration.