Appeals – Court holds that rehearing en banc was improvidently granted

Where the court previously granted the Commonwealth’s petition for rehearing en banc, it now dismissed the petition for rehearing en banc as improvidently granted.

Background                              

On Nov. 26, 2025, the Commonwealth of Virginia, by counsel, filed a petition requesting that the court set aside the judgment rendered herein on Nov. 12, 2025, and grant a rehearing en banc on the issue(s) raised in the petition. The petition was granted on Dec. 30, 2025, and the matter was heard en banc on March 31, 2026.

Analysis

Upon consideration of the petition for rehearing en banc previously granted by this Court, and the Court having heard oral argument en banc, and it now appearing that the petition for rehearing en banc was improvidently granted, it is ordered that the petition for rehearing en banc be dismissed as improvidently granted.

The stay of this Court’s Nov. 12, 2025, mandate is lifted, the decision of the panel is reinstated and the judgment of the circuit court remains reversed.

So ordered.

Dissenting opinion

Beales, Callins and White, JJ., dissenting.

We respectfully dissent from the decision to dismiss the petition for rehearing en banc as improvidently granted. We would instead have affirmed the judgment of the circuit court for the reasons stated in the dissent in the reinstated memorandum opinion.

Bland v. Commonwealth, Record No. 2061-23-2, April 7, 2026. CAV (unpublished opinion) (en banc). From the Circuit Court of Chesterfield County (Johnson). Eric Weathers, Assistant Public Defender (Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, on briefs), for appellant. Mason D. Williams, Assistant Attorney General (Jay Jones, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee. VLW 026-7-137. 2 pp.

Full-Text Opinion

VLW 026-7-137
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