Senate Bill No. 153
(By Senators Wooton, Ball, Dittmar, Hunter, Kessler,
Mitchell, Oliverio, Ross, Snyder and McKenzie)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported January 15, 1999.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact article four, chapter seven of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
one-a, relating to codifying prosecutorial authority to enter
into pre-prosecution or pre-trial agreements with defendants;
and conditions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article four, chapter seven of the code of West Virginia,
one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and
reenacted by adding thereto a new section, designated section one- a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. PROSECUTING ATTORNEY, REWARDS AND LEGAL ADVICE.
§7-4-1a. Diversion agreements; conditions.
(a) Whenever a prosecuting attorney of any county of this
state or a person acting as a special prosecutor deem it to be in the interests of justice, he or she may enter into a diversion
agreement with a person under investigation or charged with an
offense against the state of West Virginia. The agreement shall be
in writing and shall be executed in the presence of the person's
attorney.
(b) Any agreement entered into pursuant to the provisions of
subsection (a) of this section shall be for a specific period of
time not to exceed twenty-four months, as set forth in the
agreement between the prosecuting attorney and the person being
investigated or charged. The terms of any agreement entered into
pursuant to the provisions of this section may be similar in nature
to those for probationers as set forth in section nine, article
twelve, chapter sixty-two of this code, including supervision by a
probation officer of the court for the jurisdiction in which the
prosecuting attorney serves where a petition for such supervision
has been granted by the circuit court. It shall be an express
provision of any agreement entered into pursuant to the provisions
of this section that the applicable statute of limitations be
tolled for the time period of the agreement.
(c) A person who has entered into an agreement for diversion with a prosecuting attorney and who has successfully complied with
the terms of the agreement shall not be subject to prosecution for
the offense or offenses set forth in the agreement as constituting
the conduct or the transaction underlying the agreement.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to codify the practice of
pre-prosecution or pre-trial diversion and to authorize the use of
probationers for supervising divertees.
Section one-a is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.)