About Ramin

Ramin is proud of Norfolk’s leadership on criminal-justice reform.  From Norfolk’s policy of no longer asking for cash bail to its fight in the Virginia Supreme Court to end marijuana-possession prosecutions to its leading advocacy in the General Assembly, Norfolk has led the way in Virginia to a fairer and more equitable criminal justice system.

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 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.

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, has 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.

Since 2011, the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office has taken its services to the community, first with a satellite office in Ward’s Corner, then in Berkley, and now in Military Circle, where members of the community may stop in, speak to a prosecutor or a victim/witness advocate, and seek help as victims or witnesses of crimes, whether or not there is a pending court proceeding.  The Office also participates in countless events in the community every year.

Norfolk currently assigns prosecutors to prosecute a single kind of case, often for years at a time.  This system causes prosecutors to burn out and prevents prosecutors from seeing the bigger picture of the activity driving crime in Norfolk.

Ramin will implement a system of community-based prosecution, where prosecutors would be assigned to handle cases from one specific area of Norfolk.  Prosecutors will be able to build partnerships with the residents of individual neighborhoods, allowing prosecutors to be responsive to the needs of the communities they serve rather than reacting to crimes outside of their context.

Every Norfolk civic league will have a designated prosecutor who will serve as a point of contact to address concerns regarding crime and prosecution within that neighborhood.  Citizens will be able to voice their concerns with a member of the Office whom they will know by name.

Implicit bias, the long shadow of systemic racism, and mass incarceration are real.  Under Ramin’s leadership, prosecutors will undergo continuing training on these important topics and on sexism, LGBTQ+ sensitivity, and the root causes of crime so that they can, to the extent possible, ensure that they prosecute cases on their merits free of any bias or prejudice.

Norfolk’s current system of reviewing police shootings and police misconduct takes too long, leaving both officers and the community without prompt answers to whether a shooting is legally justified and necessary or whether an officer’s actions are wrongful or even criminal.  Ramin will build trust in the community by giving the community prompt answers to their questions on these vital cases.

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.

The community trust that will come from community prosecution and from a continuing, public commitment to criminal justice reform will allow the office to focus additional resources on the prosecution of violent crimes and the firearms-possession and firearms-use crimes that drive violent crimes.

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 will lobby for marijuana legalization in Richmond.

Cash bail criminalizes poverty by requiring persons accused of crimes—and presumed to be innocent—to pay to get out of jail. California, New Jersey, and Washington D.C., among others 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.

The death penalty is arbitrary, unfair, disproportionately inflicted on African Americans, expensive, and, above all, morally wrong.  We must cease using the power of the state to kill our fellow human beings.  Ramin pledges never to seek the death penalty, and Ramin pledges to lobby in Richmond to abolish the death penalty once and for all.

In 2020, twelve of Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorneys, representing 42% of Virginia’s citizens, came together to form Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice.  Ramin has been the only non-elected Commonwealth’s Attorney who has worked closely with VPPFJ, and as Commonwealth’s Attorney he will continue to support VPPFJ’s efforts to make Virginia’s criminal system fair and just for all.