Chap. 236.—An ACT to Amend the 138th Section of Chapter 207 of the
Code, with Regard to Discharge of Accused from Imprisonment, if not
Indicted in a Certain Time.

Approved March 29, 1871.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That the thir-
teenth section of chapter two hundred and seven of the Code
of Virginia, as amended heretofore, be amended and re-enacted
so as to read as follows:

Ҥ 13. A person in jail on a criminal charge, shall be dis-
charged 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, un-
less it appear to the court that material witnesses for the com-
monwealth have been enticed or kept away, or are prevented
from attendance by sickness or inevitable accident, and except
also in the case provided in the following section. And in
those cases where such criminal charge is one of felony, the
second term of the court shall be construed to mean the se-
cond term thereof at which a grand jury was impanneled; but
in all other cases of a criminal charge, it shall have no such
restricted meaning.”

2. This act shall be in force from the first day of July, eighteen
hundred and seventy-one.