Senate Bill No. 532
(By Senators Love, Schoonover, Ross, Sharpe, Helmick and
Anderson)
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[Introduced February 20, 1995; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article eight, chapter
sixty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to crimes and
proceedings against convicts; and making abduction,
kidnapping or taking another person hostage by a prisoner or
inmate a felony.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article eight, chapter sixty-two of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 8. CRIMES BY AND PROCEEDINGS AGAINST CONVICTS.
§62-8-1. Offenses by convicts; conspiracy.
A person imprisoned or otherwise in the custody of the commissioner of corrections, or any inmate as defined in section
two, article twenty, chapter thirty-one of this code, is guilty
of a felony if he shall kill, wound or inflict other bodily
injury upon an officer or guard of the penitentiary or medium
security prison; or shall break, cut or injure any building,
fixture or fastening of the penitentiary or medium security
prison, or any part thereof, for the purpose of escaping or
aiding any other convict to escape therefrom, or rendering the
penitentiary or medium security prison less secure as a place of
confinement; or shall make, procure, secrete, or have in his
possession, any instrument, tool or other thing for such purpose,
or with intent to kill, wound or inflict bodily injury as
aforesaid; or shall resist the lawful authority of an officer or
guard of the penitentiary or medium security prison for such
purpose or with such intent, or abducts or kidnaps or takes any
person hostage. Any three or more convicts so confined, or in
such custody, who shall conspire together to commit any offense
mentioned in this section shall each be deemed guilty of a
felony.
NOTE: This bill makes it a felony for any prisoner or
inmate to abduct or kidnap or take any other person hostage.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.