RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia bill aimed at expanding legal protections for corrections officers killed in the line of duty has failed to advance in the state Senate.
House Bill 295 would have expanded Virginia law to ensure that the deliberate killing of a corrections officer is treated the same as the killing of other law enforcement officers — an offense that carries a mandatory life sentence, WSET reports.
The legislation followed the death of Master Corrections Officer Jeremy Lewis Hall, who was killed during an inmate attack at River North Correctional Center in November 2025.
Under current Virginia law, the intentional killing of a law enforcement officer is classified as aggravated murder and carries a mandatory life sentence. Corrections officers are only included under certain circumstances, meaning some cases involving the killing of a corrections officer may not automatically qualify for the same penalty.
Supporters of the bill said the change would close that gap.
Among those advocating for the legislation was Hall’s wife, Dawn Hall, who said she was frustrated by the outcome.
“It hit me in a way that I wasn’t expecting it to,” Dawn Hall told WSET. “But I’m angry at the very least, that as a government, as a whole, in the state of Virginia, all it was asking for was a different level of protection.”
She said her goal has been to push for change so that corrections officers who report to work each day inside Virginia’s prisons are better protected.
The bill failed in committee on a 7–8 vote along party lines, with Democrats voting against the measure, WSET reports.
After the vote, Sen. Scott Surovell said lawmakers recognize the risks corrections officers face.
“Nobody here discounts the hard work correctional officers do every day and the situations they face,” Surovell said.
Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Dawn Hall in late 2025 alleges the Virginia Department of Corrections was aware of staffing shortages and failed to adequately investigate a threat prior to the attack that killed Hall.
