Senate Bill No. 515
(By Senators Jenkins and Plymale)
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[Introduced February 7, 2006; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §8-11-1c, relating to
costs assessed against certain criminal defendants in
municipal courts; adding a cost to benefit counties; and
addressing distribution of costs when a defendant fails to pay
any or only part of assessed costs.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §8-11-1c, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 11. POWERS AND DUTIES WITH RESPECT TO ORDINANCES AND
ORDINANCE PROCEDURES.
§8-11-1c. Additional assessment of costs for counties.
(a) In addition to any other costs which may be lawfully
imposed, the additional cost provided in subsection (b) of this section shall be imposed in each criminal case before a mayor or in
the municipal court of a municipality in which the defendant is
convicted, whether by plea or at trial, under the provisions of a
municipal ordinance, including, but not limited to:
(1) A traffic offense constituting a moving violation,
regardless of whether the penalty for the violation provides for a
period of incarceration; and
(2) Any other offense for which the ordinance prescribing the
offense provides for a period of incarceration.
(b) The additional cost shall be imposed in an amount equal to
the per diem costs for incarcerating county inmates in a regional
jail for one day, as determined pursuant to article twenty, chapter
thirty-one of this code.
(c) The clerk of each municipal court, or other person
designated to receive fines and costs, shall at the end of each
month pay the treasury of the county in which the municipality is
located the total amount of the additional costs collected under
this section, except:
(1) If a defendant has failed to pay any costs assessed
against him or her on account of the offense, no payment on account
of that defendant's offense may be made to the treasury of the
county; or
(2) If a defendant pays only a portion of the costs assessed
on account of the offense, the county is only entitled to its pro rata share of the total costs collected on account of the
defendant's offense.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
require municipal courts
to impose an additional cost on certain defendants to benefit
counties.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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