CONTRIBUTE
CONTRIBUTE
About Ramin
A Longtime Champion for Norfolk
Ramin Fatehi, a Hampton Roads native, has served as Commonwealth’s Attorney since January 1, 2022.
Ramin has served as a prosecutor in Norfolk since 2012. After graduating from law school in 2003, Ramin was a Virginia Supreme Court law clerk, a public defender, and (since 2006) a state and federal prosecutor.
Ramin is a proud Democrat, a progressive prosecutor, and Norfolk’s champion for criminal justice reform. Ramin has led the charge in Norfolk to fund Virginia’s first Witness Protection Program, to decriminalize and legalize marijuana possession, to abolish cash bail, to abolish the jury trial penalty, and to make the justice system honor the principle that Black Lives Matter.
Ramin has worked every day for a safer and more just Norfolk, by treating victims compassionately, by treating defendants fairly, and by putting justice and community values first. And he has hired and retained the most diverse and talented team of prosecutors and staff in Hampton Roads, fully staffing one of the largest and busiest Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offices in Virginia.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney is the only part of the criminal justice system directly accountable to the people: directly accountable to you.
Ramin asks for your support and for your vote in the Democratic Primary on June 17, 2025.
Commonwealth’s Attorney since 2022
Proud Member of Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice
Former Special Assistant United States Attorney in Charlottesville
Former Assistant Public Defender in Richmond
Commonwealth’s Attorney since 2022
Former Special Assistant United States Attorney in Charlottesville
Proud Member of Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice
Former Assistant Public Defender in Richmond
A Statement of Principles
Ramin is a proud Democrat, a believer in justice for all, and a proven advocate for justice and safety here in Norfolk.
Ramin believes in criminal justice reform, which honors these self-evident truths:
- Every person is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.
- Poverty is not a crime, and we should not criminalize poverty.
- The legacy of systemic racism—from redlining to segregation to community disinvestment—continues to harm people and undermine public safety.
- Children should be treated as children, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline should be shut down.
- Only guilty people should be convicted, and wrongfully convicted people should be set free.
- Crime victims should be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion.
- The government has an obligation to address poverty, mental illness, substance abuse, homelessness, and other root causes of crime that contribute to people entering the criminal justice system.
- Jail or prison should be a last resort, when public safety demands it or when there are no less-restrictive alternatives.
- Incarcerated persons should have access to programs that will help them successfully reenter the community, and participation should confer credit toward their release.
- The death penalty should be abolished.
- Every guilty person should serve every day, month, or year of the sentence necessary to protect the public.
- No guilty person should serve a day longer than necessary.
Ramin believes in the 21 Principles for the 21st Century Prosecutor.
Ramin believes that Black Lives Matter.
Ramin is a longtime member of our community. On any given day, you might see him at your civic league or business association’s meeting, at your house of worship, at your community festival, or in your local grocery or hardware store. As Commonwealth’s Attorney, Ramin has been involved, accessible, and transparent, explaining his office’s work through frequent press releases and interviews. His door is open to anyone who wants to talk about the administration of justice in Norfolk.
Unlike many of his fellow prosecutors, Ramin’s policies are freely available to the public. He wants people to know how he administers justice—and why. See Ramin’s plea agreement policy, philosophies, and procedures here.
Real Principles Mean Real Results
Ramin’s record of reform shows that he keeps his promises. Ramin’s record of results shows that his promises are good policy. And Ramin’s endorsements show that he has earned the support of the strongest advocates for justice in Norfolk, in Richmond, and in Washington—people like Congressman Bobby Scott, Speaker Don Scott, and former Attorney General Mark Herring.
Building on Success
Criminal justice reform means adopting policies and practices that scientific research has proven to make us safer, such as focusing prosecution resources on violent crime and right-sizing fines or sentences to account for people’s criminal responsibility without fueling mass incarceration or the school-to-prison pipeline. It also means moving away from the failed policies of the 1990s, including mandatory sentencing, the overpunishment of children wrongly labeled as “superpredators,” and knee-jerk “three strikes” and “zero tolerance” policies.
After taking office in 2022, Ramin fundamentally restructured the way that the 40 prosecutors and 45 support staff in Norfolk prosecute the nearly 4,000 cases they handle every year.
Ramin implemented a system of community prosecution: Prosecutors assigned to crimes by adults work closely with police from one of Norfolk’s two precincts. The Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney in charge of that precinct is responsible for information-sharing with the Norfolk Police, making it easier for Ramin’s office to identify and hold accountable the small number of people who drive disproportionate amounts of the violence and criminal activity in Norfolk. Smart prosecution allows the office to be effective against violence while freeing up resources to offer diversion, treatment, and right-sized sanctions for the majority of accused people who are not a persistent threat to public safety.
Ramin’s office also maintains a team of juvenile prosecutors who specialize in addressing the needs of children who are victims of crime or accused of criminal behavior. Those prosecutors are aware of the dangers of criminalizing childhood and guard against feeding children into the school-to-prison pipeline.
The system that Ramin implemented in 2021 has proven to be a huge success, allowing for allocation of the Office’s resources where they can have the most impact—without fueling mass incarceration.
Norfolk has long been a leader in alternatives to incarceration, having been either the first or one of the first localities in Virginia to found a Recovery Court (formerly Drug Court) for those suffering from substance-use disorders, Mental Health Court for those suffering from mental illness, and Reentry Court for citizens returning to society. Norfolk is also among the first to implement a Veterans Track in our alternative dockets to offer a helping hand to defendants whose PTSD and other service-related traumas have led them to be criminally charged. Ramin will continue Norfolk’s pioneering support for these important programs.
Across the country, only 60% of homicide cases are solved, and fewer go to trial. Cases often crumble because witnesses are scared to come forward and cooperate.
That is why Ramin successfully advocated for the first Witness Protection Program in Virginia history. Because of Ramin, witnesses in Virginia, and right here in Norfolk, finally have resources to protect them if they are subject to intimidation.
Norfolk has been a leader in providing services for victims and witnesses of crimes, with over a dozen victim-witness advocates on staff and years of significant grants for victim/witness advocacy from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. Under Ramin’s leadership, that staff will continue to serve Norfolk’s crime victims with compassion and understanding.
In 2019, the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, in partnership with the YWCA, the Norfolk Police Department, and the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office, opened the first Family Justice Center in Virginia, a landmark achievement in victim-centered services.
The Family Justice Center allows victims of domestic and sexual violence to receive services, undergo treatment, and, if they wish, to pursue charges at a single location, helping to address their trauma and to begin the process of healing and closure.
As we continue to see Donald Trump and Elon Musk take a meat cleaver to federal funding of victim services, Ramin will continue to advocate for the services necessary to help victims heal.
Ramin has built the most diverse and talented office in Hampton Roads, with a full complement of 40 prosecutors and 45 support staff who reflect the values and the backgrounds of a diverse City. At a time when diversity is under attack, Ramin is proud of the strength diversity brings to the Office.
The post-COVID era has brought great dislocations to the American job force, with a national shortage of lawyers and prosecutors leading to over ⅓ of Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney’s offices suffering from vacancies.
In this tough environment, Ramin is proud to have an office that is fully staffed and that attracts talented professionals from around the Commonwealth.
From the Berkley Reunion to the Ocean View St. Patrick’s Day Parade to the Norfolk State University Homecoming, from civic leagues to business associations, and from houses of worship to cultural institutions, Ramin and his prosecutors are of the community and in the community, because community trust is essential to public safety.
Office Priorities
In a world where Donald Trump and Elon Musk have politicized the Justice Department and federal law enforcement, offering pardons or dropping charges against violent allies while weaponizing law enforcement against their enemies, Ramin and his office stand as a bulwark to protect the principle of equal justice under law.
Ramin has protected Norfolk’s citizens against hate crime and intimidation, pledged to protect the reproductive rights of women and their health-care providers, and promised to offer even-handed justice to all.
The top priority of all prosecutors is to minimize violence. Ramin considers it his calling to keep the people of Norfolk from losing their loved ones to violence.
That is why Ramin responds to nearly every homicide and police shooting in Norfolk, day or night. He needs to be personally familiar with the facts of the case, for the sake of the victim and for the sake of the community.
The community-prosecution focus Ramin has put into place allows for smart information sharing between his office, the police department, and the community. Greater trust in the community and greater willingness of witnesses to come forward with testimony makes it easier to hold violent people accountable.
Criminal justice reform recognizes that we build public trust in prosecution through transparency and accountability.
That is why shortly after taking office Ramin publicly released a detailed statement of his plea agreement policy, philosophies, and procedures. The vast majority of “law and order” prosecutors hide their policies behind a veil of darkness, evading accountability for their actions. Ramin steps up and lets the community know the justice he pursues in their name.
Ramin’s office of 40 lawyers and 45 staff handles nearly 4,000 cases a year, including 137 trials by jury from 2023 to 2024, one of the highest numbers of jury trials in the entire Commonwealth.
Ramin has recruited, trained, and retained talented trial lawyers with the skills to advocate before juries and the wisdom to offer measured and fair resolutions in the cases that merit it.
And in 2024, Ramin’s office released over 200 announcements of the results his lawyers have won in court.
Implicit bias, the long shadow of systemic racism, and mass incarceration are real. Under Ramin’s leadership, prosecutors in Norfolk have continued to receive education and training about these and other topics like sexism, LGBTQ+ sensitivity, and the root causes of crime. Understanding these concepts helps prosecutors ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that they prosecute cases on the merits rather than for reasons of prejudice.
Police misconduct is an abuse of power that damages the public’s trust in law enforcement and the rule of law, making us all less safe.
Ramin goes to the scene of every police shooting in Norfolk. When the law permits it, he holds a press conference describing his conclusions from the associated Virginia State Police investigations, as well as his charging decisions.
Ramin will personally prosecute officers who dishonor their badges by harming the community they are sworn to protect, and whose conduct also endangers the lives of their fellow officers.
Legislative Priorities
The possession and responsible use of marijuana is legal in large parts of the United States and all over the world. Marijuana criminalization is racially discriminatory and scientifically unfounded. Virginia has decriminalized marijuana possession, but marijuana possession remains illegal here. Ramin was the architect of the policy to end marijuana-possession prosecutions in Norfolk, and he has continued to lobby for marijuana legalization in Richmond.
Ramin believes that people who are a danger to the community should be held in jail pending their trials. Ramin also believes that, if someone is not a danger to the community, they should be released from jail.
But in Virginia, magistrates and judges still routinely require people to pay cash bail before agreeing to release them.
Nobody should have to pay their way out of jail. Rich people can pay any price, and poor people sit in jail after being deemed eligible for release, further criminalizing poverty and privileging wealth.
California, New Jersey, Washington D.C., and other jurisdictions have abolished this outdated practice in favor of pretrial supervision. Ramin has already worked to end cash bail in Norfolk, and he will lobby to end all cash bail in Virginia.
Virginia has a $250 million deficit in funding for prosecutors and public defenders. All over Hampton Roads, in Republican and Democratic cities, many misdemeanor cases go to trial with no prosecutor in the room, leaving victims at the mercy of defense lawyers and wrongfully accused people at the mercy of the trial process, leading to the conviction of innocent people and the acquittal of guilty people on technicalities.
Just as bad, many parts of Virginia do not have enough lawyers to fill public-defender slots, leading people to languish in jail for want of a lawyer to represent them.
This is not justice.
That is why Ramin is one of the principals advancing the Virginia Access to Justice Act, which would require the state government to fully fund Virginia’s criminal-justice system.
Virginia is one of the few states left in America where a felony conviction costs someone their civil rights forever—including their right to vote and to serve on a jury. Only the Governor can restore those rights. This policy is a racist relic of Virginia’s 1902 Jim Crow constitution and must go.
In 2020 and again in 2025, our Democratic legislators proposed a constitutional amendment to restore the rights of returning citizens after they are released from jail or prison. This amendment advances both civil rights and public safety by giving returning citizens a say in their government and a stake in their society. It must pass the legislature again in 2026, and after that it will go to a vote of the citizens.
Ramin supports this important public-safety and civil-rights measure.
In 2020, a group of Virginia’s Commonwealth’s Attorneys came together to form Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice and to advocate for commonsense and equitable reforms to Virginia’s criminal justice system. Ramin has worked with his colleagues in VPPFJ to make the system in Virginia more safe and more fair.