Delegate David Albo (R-Springfield) has introduced a terrorism bill in the General Assembly hoping to prevent terrorist acts in the Commonwealth.
Meeting with Attorney General Jerry Kilgore on Friday, Albo said he chose to sponsor a terrorism bill because "14 people perished from my district in the attack on the Pentagon, so I take this personally."
Albo said in Richmond that the current Virginia code does not address many of the terrorist acts of today. "It is time that we took a hard stance to protect the safety of all Virginia's citizens."
Albo's bill would make the commission or the conspiracy to commit a terrorist act a specific crime in Virginia. Any person committing or conspiring to commit an act of terrorism resulting in the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of another may be subject to either life in prison or the death penalty.
His bill would also create a new crime for any person who possesses, with the intent to injure or place another in fear of injury, any chemical or nuclear substance capable of causing death and increases the penalties for possession of bomb materials with the intent to manufacture a bomb, and increases the penalty for "hoax explosive devices."
Albo also included high tech in his bill, citing an increase in the penalty for any person who commits computer trespass in the commission of an act of terrorism.
The bill also adds terrorism to the crimes for which the Commonwealth can convene a multi-jurisdictional grand jury.
"We must make this change to the law because under our current code, terrorism as a criminal offense, does not exist," Albo said. "Today in Virginia, our code does not allow the death penalty for the Osama Bin Laden's of the world who plan these heinous crimes but don't actually pull the trigger. It is time for that to change."