Greetings, everyone! It has been brought to my attention that the July date I had thought Senator Marsden's legislation to abolish juvenile life without parole will actually be a work session. This means that we have more time to work on the Republican leadership in the Virginia House of Delegates before next January. I have information that Delegate Rob Bell will be very difficult to convince (he still has not visited Kelly Anne despite our requests) and so I have decided to override him. I ask you to write Delegate Kirk Cox who is the Republican Majority Leader and the next in line for the Speaker's position as Delegate Howell is retiring. Delegate Cox's House email is here: DelKCox@house.virginia.gov Please be polite and respectful of those who stand in opposition to us as we need to build bridges and not walls. Tell the Delegate why we need to abolish juvenile life without parole. Explain that the victims of crime and their families need not relive the most horrible and terrifying moments of their lives in re-sentencing hearings. Tell them about the scientific evidence that supports that a juvenile does not fully understand the complete consequences of his actions and is therefore not fully culpable. Speak of second chances and of forgiveness and of growth and maturity. Also, speak about how not everyone that was sentenced to die in prison actually committed murder. Explain how this is a bi-partisan issue and that the dwindling state budget would benefit from the reduction in costs that this bill would bring. The numbers of those who suffer this sentence are small but the cost to keep them locked up is not. The Commonwealth has already spent over 4 million dollars keeping Kelly Anne incarcerated over the past 22 years. That bill will total over 11 million dollars should she live to age 78 in prison. Now think about what that cost will be for the nearly fifty others who were sentenced to die behind bars as children. If the heart has changed, could we not put that money to better use? Would not the taxes that the released person pay increase those savings? Senator Marsden's 25-year target is a long time. I know that I am not the same man that I was 25 years ago, and the difference between that man and the person that I was at age 17 is orders of magnitude different. Under that bill, no child sentenced to life at 15 or older would be released before age 40 and only if they have demonstrated maturity and reform during their incarceration. The bill does not guarantee freedom, only a chance for parole and only if that person's heart has reformed and matured. Is forgiveness and a second chance too much to ask for? Finally, ask Delegate Cox to support the abolition of that sentence in Virginia. God bless, Bill