H. B. 4467
(By Delegates Varner and Pino)
[Introduced February 9, 2000; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article eight, chapter
sixty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the filing of
recidivist information in the appropriate county.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, 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.
§62-8-4. Procedure in sentencing convicts to further confinement
for second and third offenses.
When a prisoner convicted of an offense and sentenced to
confinement therefor in the penitentiary a state correctional
facility, is received therein, if he or she was before convicted
in the United States of a crime punishable by imprisonment in a penitentiary state correctional facility, and the record of his
or her conviction does not show that he or she has been sentenced
under section eighteen or nineteen, article eleven, chapter
sixty-one of this code, the warden of the penitentiary a state
correctional facility may give information thereof, to the
circuit court of the county of Marshall Fayette, whether it be
alleged or not in the indictment on which he or she was convicted
that he or she had before been previously so convicted. If such
information is given, the court shall cause the convict to be
brought before it, and upon an information filed, setting forth
the several records of conviction, and alleging the identity of
the prisoner with the person named in each, shall require the
convict named to say whether he or she is the same person or not.
If he or she say he or she is not, or remain silent, his or her
plea, or the fact of his or her silence, shall be entered of
record, and a jury shall be impaneled to inquire whether the
convict is the same person mentioned in the several records. If
the jury find that he or she is not the same person, he or she
shall be remanded to the penitentiary a state correctional
facility; but if they find that he or she is the same person, or
if he or she acknowledge in open court, after being duly
cautioned, that he or she is the same person, the court shall
sentence him or her to such further confinement as is prescribed
by article eleven, chapter sixty-one of this code, on a second or third conviction, as the case may be.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.