For decades, localities have pumped money into prosecutors' offices, allowing commonwealth’s attorneys to get higher salaries, more attorneys and paralegals. But officials haven’t done the same for public defenders, leading to widening pay gaps between the two sides of the courtroom.
Virginia state senator Louise Lucas, 74, took part in the illegal planning and destruction of monuments with Black Lives Matter in June, and now she will hopefully pay for it. She is charged with two felonies. Several members of Portsmouth, Virginia's NAACP have also been charged according to W