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.
Code 1950, § 19.1-163; 1960, c. 366; 1975, c. 495; 2018, c. 551.
Notes of Decisions
Moss v. Dotson (W.D. Va. 2024).
· cites it 6× “Va. Code § 19.2-242 (emphasis added). According to the Virginia Courts Case Information website, Moss was in Lynchburg General District Court for these charges on June 6, 2021, where he either waived his preliminary hearing or the court found probable cause to certify the matter…”
Shounques Bynum v. Commonwealth of Virginia (Va. Ct. App. 2023).
· cites it 2× “Bynum also argued that he had not been tried on properly returned indictments within three terms of the court and thus was entitled to have the charges dismissed under Code § 19.2-242. On August 4, 2021, the trial court entered an order nunc pro tunc to May 9, 2011, recording…”
Moss (W.D. Va. 2026).
· cites it 2× “Code §§ 19.2-242 and 19.2-243 are the state’s codification of speedy trial rights.”
Hicks v. Clarke, 87 Va. Cir. 208 (Norfolk Cir. Ct. 2013).
· cites it 3× “Va. Code §§ 19.2-242, 19.2-243. *210 The prisoner has cited my opinion in Williams v.”
Stanley Reid v. Commonwealth (Va. Ct. App. 1995).
· cites it 2× “At trial, pursuant to the provisions of Code § 19.2-242, a jury consisting of twenty persons was impaneled, from which twelve were to be selected along with two alternates.”
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