Lawrence L. Koontz Jr.

Lawrence Larkins Koontz Jr. (born January 25, 1940) is a Senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Justice Koontz has served at every level of court (district, circuit, Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court) judicial system. 2008 marked Justice Koontz's 40th year on the bench as an active jurist.

Prior to being made a Supreme Court Justice, Justice Koontz was an original member of the Virginia Court of Appeals, serving as its second Chief Judge for two four year terms following the death of Chief Judge E. Ballard Baker a few months after the Court was created. Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeals, Justice Koontz served as a judge of the 23rd Judicial Circuit of Virginia and the Roanoke Juvenile Court. He attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University where he received a B.S. in Biology and was a member of the Corps of Cadets. He received his law degree from University of Richmond School of Law.

Among Justice Koontz's more controversial opinions was Arlington County v. White, in which the Court determined that a local government could not extend employee health benefits to non-related persons living with the employee, including same-sex partners. Writing for the majority, Justice Koontz applied the "Dillon Rule" that prohibits local governments in Virginia from going beyond the authority delegated to them by the state government. As expressed in a concurring opinion by Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, the majority declined to address whether the County's action was an attempt to recognize same-sex marriage, as was argued in a separate concurring opinion written by Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr., who was joined by two other justices. Despite the legal justification of the majority for striking down the policy, the opinion is nonetheless viewed as controversial in the Gay and Lesbian Community.

Justice Koontz also authored one of the two dissents in the Supreme Court of Virginia's opinion in Atkins v. Commonwealth. When the case was subsequently reversed by the United States Supreme Court, the majority opinion in that Court quoted from Justice Koontz's dissent, along with the dissent by Justice Hassell. Specifically, the Court cited Justice Koontz's observation that "it is indefensible to conclude that individuals who are mentally retarded are not to some degree less culpable for their criminal acts. By definition, such individuals have substantial limitations not shared by the general population. A moral and civilized society diminishes itself if its system of justice does not afford recognition and consideration of those limitations in a meaningful way."

In a more recent dissent in the death penalty case of Porter v. Commonwealth, Justice Koontz, responding to the majority's use of procedural default to excuse the trial court's gross abuse of power in presiding over the trial in a different jurisdiction without a proper order of designation, observed that "[i]f the courts empowered to sit in judgment over those accused of typically heinous crimes fail to take the greatest care in assuring the fairness of the proceedings that result in the imposition of the death penalty, then it must inevitably follow in time that the death penalty statutes of this Commonwealth will no longer pass constitutional muster." This statement was widely quoted in the media and reflects Justice Koontz's growing frustration with the manner in which the death penalty is administered in Virginia.

Justice Koontz's collected opinions are being published in a planned seven volume set, with the first five volumes already released. Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. (2011), Jurist Prudent -- The Judicial Opinions of Lawrence L. Koontz Jr., Volume 1, Salem, Virginia, USA: Salem/Roanoke County Bar Association  Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. (2011), Jurist Prudent -- The Judicial Opinions of Lawrence L. Koontz Jr., Volume 2, Salem, Virginia, USA: Salem/Roanoke County Bar Association