Senate Bill No. 512
(By Senators Kessler and Oliverio)
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[Introduced February 8, 2007; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §62-6-8, relating to
prohibiting law-enforcement officers or prosecutors from
asking or requiring an adult, youth or child victim of an
alleged sex offense to submit to a polygraph examination or
other truth-telling device as a condition for proceeding with
the investigation of the offense.
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 §62-6-8, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 6. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS CONCERNING CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.
§62-6-8. Victim of sexual offense may not be required to submit to
polygraph or other truth test as condition of
investigating alleged offense.
No law-enforcement officer, prosecutor or any other government
official may ask or require the alleged victim of a sexual offense,
as defined in article eight-b, chapter sixty-one of this code, to
submit to a polygraph or other truth testing examination as a
condition of proceeding with the investigation of the alleged
offense or to predicate a refusal to proceed with an investigation,
warrant, indictment, information or prosecution of the alleged
offense on the victim's refusal to submit to such an examination.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to comply with requirements
of the Violence Against Women Act, 42 U.S.C §3796gg-4 and §
3796hh,
which prohibits use of federal funds under the Omnibus Crime
Control and Safe Streets Act in any jurisdiction in which the
government may ask or require an alleged victim of a sexual offense
to take a polygraph or other truth-telling examination before
investigating or prosecuting the case.
§62-6-8
is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.