The Supreme Court of Virginia yesterday ordered the Virginia Department of Corrections to release a man who should have been released 18 months ago.
The Court found that the VDOC unlawfully extended the incarceration of Jose Isais Garcia Vasquez by withholding sentence credits he worked to earn.
The ACLU of Virginia filed a lawsuit on behalf of Garcia Vasquez and argued the case in January. It’s the third case the ACLU has filed on behalf of incarcerated people who should have received enhanced sentence credits according to a law passed by the General Assembly in 2020.
That law allows inmates serving time for certain felony offenses to earn up to 15 days off their sentences for every 30 days of good behavior and participation in assigned programs.
Previously, eligible incarcerated individuals could earn a maximum of 4.5 days for every 30 served.
However, Attorney General Jason Miyares in 2022 issued an opinion stating that people imprisoned for attempted offenses, or conspiring to commit an offense, were not eligible for the enhanced sentence credits.
Yesterday’s ruling marks the second time the Virginia Supreme Court has rejected Miyares’ opinion. (A Spotsylvania man was released from prison last year following the Court’s decision in Prease v. Clarke, another case argued by the ACLU of Virginia.)
Garcia Vasquez, now 24, pled guilty to and was convicted for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in 2019. Since then, according to the ACLU, he has completed college classes and an electrician course in addition to working 30 hours per week at his prison job.
He has a daughter now in second grade whom he has never seen outside of prison.
In the Virginia Supreme Court’s opinion, justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote, “Because the General Assembly chose not to disqualify conspiracy to commit murder from [the law’s] calculation of enhanced earned-sentence credits, Vasquez is entitled to these credits and thus to early release from prison.”
In a press release issued yesterday, Vishal Agraharkar, senior supervising attorney with the ACLU of Virginia, said, “VDOC and the Attorney General are supposed to uphold and apply the law as written, but instead, they manufactured their own interpretation of it and hoped no one would notice.”
“Today,” Agraharkar continued, “the Supreme Court of Virginia told VDOC, yet again, that the law is clear: people like Mr. Garcia Vasquez are entitled to the sentence credits they have worked hard to earn. We look forward to Mr. Garcia Vasquez’s imminent release and reunion with his loved ones from whom he has been separated for too long already.”
