<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0kzFZy_1H2UQ65z00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0kzFZy_1H2UQ65z00" width="1689" height="1227" ><figcaption>Screenshot of New Website</figcaption></figure>Sean Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities (VSC), has created a virtual tool to help Virginia residents easily view the outcomes of violent crime cases.Sourced from VirginiaCourtData.org, whose owner previously requested the raw court data from the state court system, the tool in beta version displayed the outcomes of court cases regarding violent crimes such as murder, manslaughter, robbery and others.“I think it’s a useful tool for policymakers, for law enforcement, for court watchers, for the media, for the general public, even to see what’s actually going on in Virginia courts,” said Kennedy. “Because the lack of transparency contributes to bad policy making, and in many cases, bad court outcomes because people who should be held accountable aren’t being held accountable.” The interface of the tool allows users to see statewide data for all violent crimes, or they can choose to filter specific crimes, such as murder or robbery, or specific county courts throughout the state, including Fairfax and Fairfax City. At this time, not all counties have data for every available filter. For example, there is no available data in Fairfax County for attempted murder, felony sex offenses, robbery, carjacking, aggravated malicious wounding, abduction/kidnapping or malicious wounding.Kennedy, who also sits on the Fairfax County Criminal Justice Advisory Board, has been tracking statewide crime data for several years, and states that an inability to identify trends in outcomes frustrated him, which led to him creating the tool. The tool’s main graph depicts an abridged, general timeline of the cases, showing which ones reached the circuit court and which ones reached the district court. Then, the graph groups the outcomes of these cases together and shows the percentage of court cases that reached each outcome, showing how many cases were convicted as charged, convicted of lesser offenses, reached a not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) verdict or were dropped, dismissed, or acquitted.Kennedy also highlights a particular challenge with incorporating Fairfax cases into statewide crime data, since Fairfax County court records are separate from the statewide database. Though the Fairfax County website includes the Fairfax Circuit Court eCaseSearch, where individuals can freely search court records, Kennedy highlights that this tool allows searches by the case number or the party name.“You can’t search by offense or even date. You have to search by something you already know,” he said.While Kennedy’s tool includes statewide data, specific Fairfax County data, grouped with Fairfax City data, regarding murder and manslaughter cases are available for view.According to the tool, between 2019 and 2025, 113 defendants were arrested for murder, with 81 charged with second-degree murder and 22 charged with first-degree murder. Of those 113, 48% ended up convicted of murder, while 20% of the cases had charges reduced to manslaughter, 5% were convicted of a lesser offense, and 11% of these defendants had their charges dropped or dismissed, or were acquitted. Of the 113 defendants, 14 pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), making up for 14% of the murder cases in Fairfax County. Kennedy highlights this as abnormal, but according to a spokesperson from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS), “The number of [NGRI] acquittals has stayed fairly consistent over the last 10 years.” By contrast, according to the statewide data for murder cases displayed within the tool, only 1.9% (42 out of 2,866) defendants ended up with a not guilty by reason of insanity plea. The data also notes that seven cases are still pending, and 12 cases are categorized as fugitive, juvenile, unknown, or other.The data for manslaughter cases is significantly smaller, displaying only eight cases for the 2019-2025 time period. Of these eight, five were convicted as charged, two were convicted of a lesser offense, and one received a withheld finding of judgment.It is important to note that this tool does not show statistics by individual years, and instead groups the data into two time periods: arrests made between 2019-2025, and arrests made between 2010-2025, meaning it shows all the available data at once.According to a spokesperson at the Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD), the 2025 Crime in Virginia report shows that violent crime has “generally declined statewide,” and added, “Fairfax County has experienced similar trends.”“Our year-to-date comparisons show decreases in aggravated assaults and robberies, relatively consistent homicide numbers, and a slight increase in reported rapes,” FCPD wrote in its statement.As of Nov. 2, Kennedy has created an updated version of the crime tracking tool with more information regarding crime trends, repeat arrestees, Fairfax homicides and firearm charges against illegal aliens. The newer tool also makes it easier for individuals to compare statistics across different county courts, though according to FCPD, “When comparing violent crime statistics across jurisdictions, it’s important to account for differences in population and reporting periods.”The original crime tracker can be found at https://fairfax-murders-descano.netlify.app/. The updated version can be found at virginiajusticedata.org. According to Kennedy, the new website “will be regularly updated as new data becomes available, including Fairfax County Circuit Court data.” Data for individual cases can be corroborated using the eCaseSearch (ECS) found on fairfaxcounty.gov/circuit for Fairfax County records and vacourts.gov/caseinfo for the rest of the state.</div></body>

Block Source: Fairfax Times

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Sean Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities (VSC), has created a virtual tool to help Virginia residents easily view the outcomes of violent crime cases. Sourced from VirginiaCourtData.org, whose owner previously requested the raw court data from the state court system, the tool in beta version displayed the outcomes of court cases regarding violent crimes such as murder, manslaughter, robbery and others.

Online tool shows violent crime statistics

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Sean Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities (VSC), has created a virtual tool to help Virginia residents easily view the outcomes of violent

Online tool shows violent crime statistics

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