Gov. Ralph Northam has pardoned Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, for a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor related to his relationship with a 17-year-old law firm assistant who later became his wife.
Morrissey, then a delegate, was convicted in 2014. He and his wife, Myrna, are now raising four children.
Morrissey said he learned of the pardon on Thursday. Northam granted him what’s called a simple pardon.
“To say that I was extremely pleased with what the governor did would be, perhaps for me, the understatement of the 2022 General Assembly session,” he said.
“Most importantly, my wife is grateful,” he said.
And although their young children don’t understand a pardon yet, they’ll be grateful someday for the governor’s action, Morrissey said.
Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, was Morrissey’s attorney in his pardon request.
“A simple pardon doesn’t change any legal consequences associated with a conviction, but I think in a lot of ways it serves as a sort of validation that somebody moved on from the situation that led to the crime at issue and has done a lot to redeem themselves,” Surovell said.
Morrissey, who was 57 in 2014, entered an Alford plea to the misdemeanor count and was sentenced to 12 months in jail with six months suspended. He was allowed to work as a state delegate from Henrico County through a work release program, spending nights in jail in 2015.
He lost a bid for mayor of Richmond in 2016. In June 2019, he defeated Sen. Rosalyn Dance, D-Petersburg, in a primary.
Morrissey, a former Richmond prosecutor and local defense attorney, has been disbarred but now wields significant power as a member of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, often scrutinizing judges, and expresses more independent views than other Senate Democrats.
His license was previously revoked in 2003, and he won reinstatement in 2012 in a 4-3 decision by the Virginia Supreme Court.