ENGROSSED

Senate Bill No. 616

(By Senators Wooton, Burnette, Caldwell, Fanning,

Hunter, Kessler, Minard, Mitchell, Oliverio, Rowe,

Deem, Facemyer and McKenzie)

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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;


reported February 15, 2002.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section nine, article eleven, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to limitation of prosecution; and removing three-year statute of limitation for perjury.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section nine, article eleven, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 11. GENERAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING CRIMES.
§61-11-9. Limitation of prosecution; lost indictment.

A prosecution for committing or procuring another person to commit perjury shall be commenced within three years next after the perjury was committed. A prosecution for a misdemeanor shall be commenced within one year after the offense was committed, except that a prosecution for petit larceny may be commenced within three years after the commission of the offense: Provided, That whenever the indictment in any case shall be stolen, lost or destroyed, a new indictment may be found for the same offense mentioned in the former indictment, at the first term of the court after such theft, loss or destruction is discovered, or at the next term thereafter, and as often as any such new indictment is stolen, lost or destroyed, another indictment for the same offense may be found at the first term of the court after such theft, loss or destruction is discovered, or at the next term thereafter; and the court shall, in every case where any such indictment has been stolen, lost or destroyed, enter such fact on its record. Whenever such new indictment is found, the clerk shall add to the entry of the finding thereof the following: "This is the second (or third, etc., as the case may be) indictment found against the said ............... for the same offense"; and the same proceedings shall be had in all respects on any such new indictment as might have been had on the first indictment if it had not been stolen, lost or destroyed. And if the offense mentioned in any such indictment is barred by the statute of limitations, the time between the finding of the first and last of such indictments shall not be computed or taken into consideration in the computation of the time in which any such indictment, after the first, should have been found.