Senate Bill No. 515
(By Senator McKenzie)
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[Introduced March 11, 2005; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §61-2-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to expanding the definition of
"murder in the first degree" to include murder while
committing the crime of entering without breaking a dwelling
house in the daytime.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §61-2-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-1. First and second degree murder defined; allegations in
indictment for homicide.
Murder by poison, lying in wait, imprisonment, starving or by
any willful, deliberate and premeditated killing, or in the
commission of, or attempt to commit, arson, kidnaping, sexual
assault, robbery, burglary, breaking and entering,
entering without
breaking a dwelling house in the daytime, escape from lawful
custody or a felony offense of manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance as defined in article four, chapter sixty-a of
this code, is murder of the first degree. All other murder is
murder of the second degree.
In an indictment for murder and manslaughter, it shall not be
necessary to set forth the manner in which, or the means by which,
the death of the deceased was caused, but it shall be sufficient in
every such indictment to charge that the defendant did feloniously,
willfully, maliciously, deliberately and unlawfully slay, kill and
murder the deceased.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
expand the definition of
murder in the first degree to include murder while committing the
crime of entering without breaking a dwelling house in the daytime.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.