H. B. 4643
(By Delegate Keener)
[Introduced February 22, 2002; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section seven, article one-c, chapter
sixty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to further amend said
article by adding thereto a new section, designated section
seven-a, all relating to requiring the court to revoke a
nonappearing criminal defendant's bond; providing the court
may rescind the revocation upon a showing of reasonable
grounds for the defendant's failure to appear; providing the
court shall notify a surety of a defendant's failure to appear
and the issuance of a warrant for the defendant's arrest;
providing the court shall allow a surety certain time periods
to produce a defendant; providing that if a surety produces proof that a defendant who has failed to appear is
incarcerated in another jurisdiction that the posted bond will
be exonerated at the time the defendant is delivered to the
jurisdiction to which he or she was unable to appear as the
result of the incarceration; providing that certain portions
of forfeited bail will be returned to a surety if a defendant
is returned to the jurisdiction within certain time
limitations; and, providing that the certain time limitations
will not commence if the missing criminal defendant is found
to be incarcerated in another jurisdiction, until such time
the defendant is released from the incarceration.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section seven, article one-c, chapter sixty-two of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said article be further
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
seven-a, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1C. BAIL.
§62-1C-7. Forfeiture of bail.
If a criminal defendant fails to appear, as required, the
court shall forthwith revoke the bail bond and issue a warrant for the defendant's arrest. The court may rescind the forfeiture, in
whole or in part, if the defendant or surety can show reasonable
grounds for the defendant's failure to appear. The court shall
notify the surety of the defendant's failure to appear and the
issuance of a warrant. However, the court shall allow the surety
one year from the date of the failure to appear to produce the
defendant, and may allow an additional year at its discretion for
that purpose. If the surety can produce proof that the defendant
is incarcerated in another jurisdiction and that he or she will, at
no expense to the state, return the defendant to the jurisdiction
of the original court, the bond shall be exonerated at the time
that the defendant is delivered from the jurisdiction wherein he or
she is incarcerated.
§62-1C-7a. Remittiture of forfeiture.
(a) After forfeiture of the bail bond, within the next twelve
months, the defendant is apprehended and delivered to the court of
original jurisdiction, a refund of eighty percent of the original
amount of bail shall be refunded to the surety. Within the
following two year period, if the defendant is delivered up to the
original jurisdiction, a refund of fifty percent of the original
bail amount shall be refunded to the surety.
(b) If the defendant is found to be incarcerated in another
jurisdiction, the time limits provided in this section shall
commence at the expiration of the defendant's current sentence.
(c) Forfeiture of bail may be declared only for a defendant's
failure to appear at any court-ordered appearance.
NOTE: The purposes of this bill are as follows: (1) To
require the court to revoke a nonappearing criminal defendant's
bond; (2) to provide the court may rescind the revocation upon a
showing of reasonable grounds for the defendant's failure to
appear; (3) to provide the court shall notify a surety of a
defendant's failure to appear and the issuance of a warrant for the
defendant's arrest; (4) to provide the court shall allow a surety
certain time periods to produce a defendant; (5) to provide that if
a surety produces proof that a defendant who has failed to appear
is incarcerated in another jurisdiction that the posted bond will
be exonerated at the time the defendant is delivered to the
jurisdiction to which he or she was unable to appear as the result
of the incarceration; (6) to provide that certain portions of
forfeited bail will be returned to a surety if a defendant is
returned to the jurisdiction within certain time limitations; and
(7) to provide that the certain time limitations will not commence
if the missing criminal defendant is found to be incarcerated in
another jurisdiction, until such time the defendant is released
from the incarceration.
Section 7 has been completely rewritten and section 7a is new;
therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.