Senate Bill No. 647
(By Senator Kessler)
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[Introduced February 22, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §14-2A-4 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, allowing the services of the Attorney
General to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund to be
recompensed, if funds are available, at the same rate as panel
attorneys are paid for representing criminal defendants.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §14-2A-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. COMPENSATION AWARDS TO VICTIMS OF CRIMES.
§14-2A-4. Creation of Crime Victims Compensation Fund.
(a) Every person within the state who is convicted of or
pleads guilty to a misdemeanor offense, other than a traffic
offense that is not a moving violation, in any magistrate court or
circuit court, shall pay the sum of $10 as costs in the case, in
addition to any other court costs that the court is required by law to impose upon the convicted person. Every person within the state
who is convicted of or pleads guilty to a misdemeanor offense,
other than a traffic offense that is not a moving violation, in any
municipal court, shall pay the sum of $8 as costs in the case, in
addition to any other court costs that the court is required by law
to impose upon the convicted person. In addition to any other
costs previously specified, every person within the state who is
convicted of or pleads guilty to a violation of section two,
article five, chapter seventeen-c of this code, shall pay a fee in
the amount of twenty percent of any fine imposed under that
section. This is in addition to any other court costs required by
this section or which may be required by law.
(b) The clerk of the circuit court, magistrate court or
municipal court where the additional costs are imposed under the
provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall, on or before
the last day of each month, transmit all costs received under this
article to the State Treasurer for deposit in the State Treasury to
the credit of a special revenue fund to be known as the "Crime
Victims Compensation Fund". All moneys collected and received
under this article and paid into the State Treasury and credited to
the Crime Victims Compensation Fund in the manner prescribed in
section two, article two, chapter twelve of this code, shall be
kept and maintained for the specific purposes of this article, and
may not be treated by the auditor and treasurer as part of the
general revenue of the state.
(c) Expenditure of moneys in the Crime Victims Compensation
Fund is authorized from collections.
(d) Moneys in the crime Victims Compensation Fund may be
expended for:
(1) The payment of the costs of administration of this
article;
(2) The payment of economic loss awards approved by the court;
and
(3) The payment of attorney and witness fees, allowed pursuant
to section nineteen of this article.
(e) The services of the office of the Attorney General, as may
be required or authorized by any of the provisions of this article,
shall be rendered without charge to the fund and the costs of such
representation shall be paid from the fund, should the fund
administrator determine sufficient funds are available, at the same
hourly rate as is paid to panel attorneys under section thirteen-a,
article twenty-one, chapter twenty-nine of this code.
(f) Any moneys in the Crime Victims Compensation Fund may be
invested as provided in article six, chapter twelve of this code,
with the interest income credited to the Crime Victims Compensation
Fund.
(g) All funds in the special economic loss claim payment fund
created under the provisions of section twenty of this article
prior to the amendments made in that section enacted in the year
one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine shall be transferred to the crime victims compensation fund within a reasonable time from the
effective date of the amendments.
(h) (g) All gifts that are received to be used for the
purposes of this article shall be deposited into the Crime Victims
Compensation Fund.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize compensation
for services of the Attorney General at the same rate as panel
attorneys representing criminal defendants to be paid from the
Crime Victims Compensation Fund.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.