Friday, September 5, 2008
The General Assembly is not in session.
Tracking Virginia’s General Assembly
since 2007.
HB2204: Grand jury, special; impanelling by State attorney.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§ 19.2-206 and 19.2-210 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 19.2-206. When special grand jury may be impanelled.
A. Special grand juries may be impanelled by a circuit court
(i) at any time upon its own motion, (ii) upon recommendation of a minority of
the members of a regular grand jury that a special grand jury be impanelled, to
perform the functions provided for in subdivision (2) of § 19.2-191, or (iii)
upon request motion
of the attorney for the Commonwealth, for good cause
shown, to investigate and report on any condition that involves or
tends to promote criminal activity and consider bills of indictment to
determine whether there is sufficient probable cause to return each such
indictment as a "true bill."
B. A special grand jury shall be impanelled by a circuit court upon the recommendation of a majority of the members of a regular grand jury if the court finds probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed which should be investigated by a special grand jury impanelled to perform the functions provided for in subdivision (2) of § 19.2-191.
§ 19.2-210. Presence of attorney for the Commonwealth.
The attorney for the Commonwealth shall not be present at any
time while the special grand jury is in session except that during the
investigatory stage of its proceedings he may be present. When the special
grand jury is impanelled upon motion of the court or recommendation of a
regular grand jury, he may be present during the investigatory stage only when
his presence is requested by the special grand jury and may interrogate
witnesses provided the special grand jury requests or consents to such
interrogation. When the special grand jury was impanelled upon his request motion, he may examine any witness called to testify or produce
evidence, but his examination of a witness shall in no way affect the right of
any grand juror to examine the witness.
The attorney for the Commonwealth shall not be present during or after the investigative stage of the proceedings at any time while the special grand jury is discussing, evaluating or considering the testimony of a witness or is deliberating in order to reach decisions or prepare its report, except that he may be present when his legal advice is requested by the special grand jury.
Additional Data
Explanation
This is the actual text of the bill — the legislation itself. Generally this is amending existing law, proposing the addition or removal of words from laws that are already on the books.
Words that are highlighted in yellow are
proposed additions, and words that are crossed out in
red are proposed removals.
The numbers with the § symbol before them are references to existing laws, and if you click on them they’ll take you to that part of the law on the state's website.