CHAP. 198.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4051 of the Code of
Virginia, 1887, in regard to suspending sentence, or execution thereof,
and to provide for bail pending suspension of sentence, or execution
thereof, after conviction, as amended and re-enacted by an act of
the general assembly of Virginia, approved March 17, 1910, and to
provide for bail after writ of error has been granted to a convicted
person pending such writ of error and appeal. (S. B. 322.)

Approved March 16, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section forty hundred and fifty-one of the Code of Virginia,
eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, in regard to suspending
sentence, or execution thereof, and to provide for bail pending
suspension of sentence, or execution thereof, after conviction,
as amended and re-enacted by an act of the general assembly
of Virginia, approved March seventeenth, nineteen hundred and
ten, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 4051. If a person sentenced by a circuit or corpo-
ration or hustings court to death or confinement in the peniten-
tiary ask for time to apply for a writ of error, the said court
shall postpone the execution of its sentence until a reasonable
time beyond the first day of the next term of the court of ap-
peals, not exceeding thirty days after that day. In any other
criminal case wherein judgment is given by any court, and in
any case of judgment for a contempt, to which a writ of error
lies, the court giving such judgment may postpone the execu-
tion thereof for such time and on such terms as it deems proper.
And in any case after conviction, and sentence, or the execution
thereof is suspended, in accordance with this section, or for
any other cause, the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, may,
in the discretion of such court or judge, let the prisoner to bail
in such penalty and for appearance at such time as the nature
of the case may require.

If a circuit or corporation court, or judge thereof, in term
time or in vacation refuses to admit such a person to bail, or
require excessive bail, then the supreme court of appeals, or
any judge thereof, in term time or in vacation, upon petition
of such person, shall at once order him to be brought before
said court or judge in order that a motion may be made to admit
him to bail, and upon such motion said supreme court of appeals,
or the judge thereof in vacation, may hear the testimony and
admit him to bail or remand him to jail.

2. In view of the fact that many cases are now pending for
trial and will be tried before ninety days elapse, an emergency
is created, and this act shall take effect from its passage.