                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

ACCUSED DISCHARGED FROM JAIL IF NOT INDICTED IN TIME (§ 19.2-242)

A person in jail on a criminal charge that has been certified or otherwise
transferred from a district court to a circuit court shall be discharged from
imprisonment if a presentment, indictment or information be not found or filed
against him before the end of the second term of the court at which he is held
to answer, unless it appear to the court that material witnesses for the
Commonwealth have been enticed or kept away or are prevented from attendance by
sickness or inevitable accident, and except, also, in the cases provided in §§
19.2-168.1 and 19.2-169.1. A discharge under the provisions of this section
shall not, however, prevent a reincarceration after a presentment or indictment
has been found.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 19.1-163; 1960, c. 366; 1975, c. 495; 2018, c. 551.