SB 396 Text

ENGROSSED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR

Senate Bill No. 396
(By Senator Love)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 26, 2003.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section seven, article five, chapter fifty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to providing for the joinder of misdemeanor prosecutions in circuit court originally charged in state court where a defendant is charged by complaint with felonies and misdemeanors which are parts of the same transaction or a common scheme or plan.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That section seven, article five, chapter fifty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 5. TRIALS, HEARINGS AND APPEALS.

§50-5-7. Right to trial in criminal cases.

Every defendant charged in a magistrate court in a criminal proceeding which is within the jurisdiction of the court shall have the right to a trial on the merits in the magistrate court unless the misdemeanor offense is also charged with a felony offense and both offenses arise out of the same act or transaction or constitute parts of a common scheme or plan. In magistrate court where a misdemeanor is also charged with a felony offense, the defendant is entitled to a preliminary hearing on the misdemeanor charge which shall be held at the time set for the felony offense or offenses.

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