SB 512 Text

ENROLLED

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 512
(Senators Kessler and Oliverio, original sponsors)
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[Passed March 6, 2007; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §62-6-8, relating to prohibiting law-enforcement officers or prosecutors from asking or requiring an adult, youth or child victim of an alleged sexual offense to submit to a polygraph examination or other truth testing device as a condition for proceeding with the investigation of the offense; and establishing that refusal to undergo such testing shall not prevent investigation of the offense.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §62-6-8, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS CONCERNING CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.

§62-6-8. Alleged victim of sexual offense may not be required to submit to a polygraph examination or other truth telling device as a condition of investigating an alleged offense nor may prosecutors or law-enforcement officers decline to proceed if the victim refuses such examination.

No law-enforcement officer, prosecutor or any other government official may ask or require the adult, youth or child victim of an alleged sexual offense, as set forth in the provisions of section six, article eight, chapter sixty-one of this code; section six, article twelve of said chapter; section five, article eight-d, of said chapter; and article eight-b of said chapter, or any other sexual offense as defined under state or local law, to submit to a polygraph examination or other truth-testing examination as a condition for proceeding with the investigation of the alleged offense. No law-enforcement officer, prosecutor or any other government official may refuse to proceed with an investigation, warrant, indictment, information or prosecution of the alleged offense because the alleged victim refused to submit to such an examination.

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