Virginia Panel Rejects Bill Intended to Decriminalize Adultery

A state panel in Virginia has rejected a bill to decriminalize adultery.

FOX’s Pat O’Neill has the details: 

Virginia is one of about a dozen states where infidelity is a crime. Democratic State Senator Scott Surovell wanted to keep the $250 penalty for adultery, but reduce it to a simple civil offense.

As it is now, he says, the law is a misdemeanor, so anyone accused of adultery can plead the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer:

(Surovell) “Virginia’s proof for proving adultery and divorce is so high, it’s otherwise pretty hard to prove it and so it ends up running up the cost of litigation and making it a lot harder to hold people accountable for their behavior.”

There have only been eight successful adultery prosecutions in Virginia in the last decade.

A senate panel killed the bill, but Surovell, who’s introduced the bill three times now, says he’ll probably try again next year.

Pat O’Neill, FOX News.