Senate Bill No. 600
(By Senators Chafin, Plymale, Bailey, Yoder, Jenkins, Helmick and
Hunter)
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[Introduced March 18, 2005; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §62-3-21 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to reducing the amount of time a
prosecutor has to try a case after an information is filed or
an indictment is obtained.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §62-3-21 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. TRIAL OF CRIMINAL CASES.
§62-3-21. Discharge for failure to try within certain time.
Every person charged by presentment or indictment with a
felony or misdemeanor, and remanded to a court of competent
jurisdiction for trial, shall be forever discharged from
prosecution for the offense, if there
be three regular terms of
such court is one term of the court, after the presentment is made
or the indictment is found against him
or her, without a trial,
unless the failure to try him
or her was caused by his
or her insanity; or by the witnesses for the state being enticed or kept
away, or prevented from attending by sickness or inevitable
accident; or by a continuance granted on the motion of the accused;
or by reason of his escaping from jail, or failing to appear
according to his
or her recognizance, or of the inability of the
jury to agree in their verdict; and every person charged with a
misdemeanor before a
justice of the peace magistrate, city police
judge, or any other inferior tribunal, and who has therein been
found guilty and has appealed his
or her conviction of guilt and
sentence to a court of record, shall be forever discharged from
further prosecution for the offense set forth in the warrant
against him
or her, if after
his having appealed
such the
conviction and sentence, there
be three regular terms of such is
one term of the court without a trial, unless the failure to try
him
or her was for one of the causes
hereinabove set forth set out
above relating to proceedings on indictment.
The prosecutor may
request an extension of time, not to exceed one term of court and
for good cause shown, the court may grant the continuation.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to reduce the amount of time
a prosecutor has to try a case after an information is filed or an
indictment is obtained.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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