W. Va. Code » §62-2-12. Discharge of imprisoned person upon failure to indict within certain time; person not indicted by reason of insanity.
West Virginia Code

W. Va. Code § 62-2-12 (2026)

Discharge of imprisoned person upon failure to indict within certain time; person not indicted by reason of insanity

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section WV-LEGwvlegislature.gov JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar
ARTICLE 2. PRESENTMENTS AND INDICTMENTS.

§62-2-12. Discharge of imprisoned person upon failure to indict within certain time; person not indicted by reason of insanity.

A person in jail, on a criminal charge, shall be discharged from imprisonment if he be not indicted 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 state have been enticed or kept away, or are prevented from attendance by sickness or inevitable accident, and except also that, when a person in jail, on a charge of having committed an indictable offense, is not indicted by reason of his insanity at the time of committing the act, the grand jury shall certify that fact to the court; whereupon the court may order him to be sent to a state hospital for the insane, or to be discharged.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 10 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 1977–2026 · leading case: State Ex Rel. Shifflet v. Rudloff, 582 S.E.2d 851 (W. Va. 2003).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
State Ex Rel. Shifflet v. Rudloff, 582 S.E.2d 851 (W. Va. 2003). · cites it 40× “Shifflet argues that W. Va.Code § 62-2-12 (1923) requires the state to indict an incarcerated person within two terms of court or, in the absence of certain exceptions, release the *853 incarcerated person.”
State of Iowa v. Deantay Darelle Williams, 895 N.W.2d 856 (Iowa 2017). · cites it 2× “1(f)(1) (West, Westlaw current with amendments through March 15, 2017); W. Va. Code Ann. § 62-2-12 (West, Westlaw current with legislation through March 14, 2017).”
State of West Virginia v. Antwyn D. Gibbs & State of West Virginia v. Kevin Goodman, Jr., 797 S.E.2d 623 (W. Va. 2017). · cites it 2× “crossbow, one pair Jordan Columbia 11 shoes, one pair Jordan Infrared 6 shoes and/or one safe containing United States Currency, of the property of the said Andrew Gunn, and lawfully in the control and custody of the said Andrew Gunn, from the person of or from the presence of…”
State of West Virginia ex rel. Sonté C. Butler v. Misty Adams, Superintendent, N. Reg'l Jail (W. Va. 2026). · cites it 39× “The term of court in which the defendant is arrested and jailed does not count as a “term” for the purpose of determining whether he or she was “indicted before the end of the second term of the court, at which he is held to answer,” as required by West Virginia Code section…”
State v. Boykins, 320 S.E.2d 134 (W. Va. 1984). “W.Va. Code, 62-2-12. Finding no basis for reversal of the conviction, we affirm.”
Kanteles v. Wheelock, 439 F. Supp. 505 (D.N.H. 1977). “13, §§ 4818, 4820 (1974)], West Virginia [W.Va.Code § 62-2-12 (1977)]. A seventh state, Massachusetts, had such a statute, but repealed it in 1970 [Mass.”
Charles N. Brannon v. Karen Pszczolkowski, Superintendent (W. Va. 2018). · cites it 2× “2d 734 (1950), this Court examined the language of the robbery statute (W.Va. Code § 62-2-12) and concluded that the statute criminalizes the mere threat of using a firearm to steal money from another.”
Roger P. v. Pszczolkowski, Superintendent (W. Va. 2021). · cites it 2× “West Virginia Code § 62-2-12 provides that “[a] person in jail, on a criminal charge, shall be discharged from imprisonment if he be not indicted before the end of the second term of the court .”
State of West Virginia v. David Clayton White (W. Va. 2014). · cites it 2× “The two-term rule is embodied in West Virginia Code § 62-2-12, which provides in pertinent part: “[a] person in jail, on a criminal charge, shall be discharged from imprisonment if he be not indicted before the end of the second term of the court, at which he is held to answer[.”
Amended August 7, 2017 State of Iowa v. Deantay Darelle Williams (Iowa 2017). “1(f)(1) (West, Westlaw current with amendments through March 15, 2017); W. Va. Code Ann. § 62-2-12 (West, Westlaw current with legislation through March 14, 2017).”
W. Va. Code § 62-2-12(a): 1 case
State of West Virginia v. Antwyn D. Gibbs & State of West Virginia v. Kevin Goodman, Jr., 797 S.E.2d 623 (W. Va. 2017). “crossbow, one pair Jordan Columbia 11 shoes, one pair Jordan Infrared 6 shoes and/or one safe containing United States Currency, of the property of the said Andrew Gunn, and lawfully in the control and custody of the said Andrew Gunn, from the person of or from the presence of…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.