The “progressive prosecutors” stand out in AG’s primary career

The primary for the attorney general may present to the Democrats an option on how they see progressive prosecutors.

In 2020, Henrico Commonwealth’s lawyer, Shannon Taylor, was one of the founding members of a group that called himself progressive prosecutors for justice. He left the group two years later, but his role as a founding member can end up playing in his campaign for the Attorney General. Rob Poggenklass with Justice Virginia striker says that progressive prosecutors obtained some important victories.

“Things like abolishing the death penalty and sealing and eliminating the criminal record,” says Poggenklass. “Those were two of the ideas that this group pushed and was achieved.”

But Republicans are already pointing out that they would love to run against a progressive prosecutor for justice, and the registration attorney general Jason Miyares frequently speaks of the fact that Democrats first have a criminal, the victims, the victims, the last mentality. Here is Shawn Weneta of the humanization project.

“The current Attorney General wants to make him a controversial group. However, 40% of Virginians have continued to choose these” progressive prosecutors, “says Shawn Weneta of the humanization project. “And we see dramatic falls in the crime, we see more and better results for crime victims, we see increasingly better results for people who have hurt and have gone and have returned to the community.”

Taylor’s rival in the Democratic primaries is former delegate Jay Jones, who has no background as a prosecutor, although he has a progressive voting history of his time in the Chamber of Delegates. Voters in the June primaries will determine which candidate they want to challenge Miyares in November.

This report, provided by Virginia Public RadioIt was possible thanks to support from the Virginia Education Association.