WASHINGTON, DC – A new article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch reveals that Virginia AG Jason Miyares lied in recent campaign ad, using a tragic death for his own political purposes. The article states, “For close to two months, Miyares has campaigned on the 2023 death of Lindsey Braun, a nurse practitioner who was struck by a car while backing out of her driveway in South Richmond.”

“Miyares has spotlighted the driver, Tabias McClain, as having been released early because of [one policy] in particular, enhanced earned sentence credits… McClain, Miyares said, was one of those recipients. But a review of state laws and sentencing records related to the case found that McClain could not have qualified for the program.”

Key highlights:

• “The facts behind a tragic case being wielded by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in his bid for re-election appear to be misleading at best.”

• “McClain, 26, was convicted of malicious wounding with a firearm when he was 17 years old. Malicious wounding, like murder and kidnapping offenses, have never qualified for the enhanced credits.”

• “His release — after serving 82% of his sentence — aligns with Virginia’s longstanding earned sentence credit programs enabled in 1995 under Republican Gov. George Allen.”

• “In addition to his conviction not qualifying for the enhanced credits, sentencing orders in his case indicate that McClain would have been released in February 2023 — five months before the crash — even with no credits applied for good time, enhanced or regular.”

• “…the Department of Corrections said that McClain did receive enhanced earned sentence credits stating that [McClain] was eligible because ‘his DOC term did not include the Malicious Wounding offense.’ However, a transfer order in McClain’s case clearly lists the malicious wounding offense as an offense for which he’s being sentenced to serve time within the prison system.”

• “In the weeks that followed, [Miyares’] campaign cut an ad featuring an interview with Applewhite, which is running presently as the campaign heads toward Election Day. ‘Using a family’s tragedy for political purposes is troubling. Doing it on false facts is pathetic,’ said [local defense attorney Betty Layne DesPortes].” 

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