The 2021 General Assembly session was short but consequential, perhaps one of the most consequential in Virginiaâs long history. The legislature abolished the death penalty and legalized marijuana. Those two actions alone earn this session a place in history. The General Assembly, now in its second year of full Democratic control after decades of Republican majorities, also continued its makeover of criminal justice and election laws. It voted to take down the statue of Harry F. Byrd Sr., the architect of Virginiaâs Massive Resistance to integration in the â50s. Unfortunately, it also voted to keep in place Byrdâs school-funding policies that have created vast disparities between schools in Virginiaâs most affluent communities and those in its poorest locales.