CODE OF VIRGINIA

INMATES AS WITNESSES IN CRIMINAL CASES (§ 19.2-269.1)

Whenever the Commonwealth or a defendant in a criminal prosecution in any
circuit court in this Commonwealth requires as a witness in his behalf, an
inmate in a state or local correctional facility as defined in § 53.1-1, the
court, on the application of such defendant or his attorney, or the attorney for
the Commonwealth, shall issue an order to the Director of the Department of
Corrections to deliver such witness to the sheriff of the jurisdiction of the
court issuing the order. If authorized by the court, the clerk of the circuit
court or a deputy clerk may issue these orders on behalf of the court. The
sheriff shall go where such witness may then be and carry him to the court to
testify as such witness, and after he has testified and been released as such
witness, carry him back to the place whence he came, for all of which service
the sheriff shall be paid out of the criminal expense funds in the state
treasury such compensation as the court in which the case is pending may certify
to be reasonable.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 8-300; 1966, c. 227; 1974, cc. 44, 45; 1977, c. 624;
2002, cc. 515, 544.