Chap. 217.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 4889 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to the trial of misdemeanor cases, so as to provide for the
trial of such cases by trial justices, in the absence of the accused. [H B 116]

Approved March 10, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion forty-eight hundred and eighty-nine of the Code of Virginia, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 4889. Process on indictment or presentment for misde-
meanor.—On any indictment or presentment for a misdemeanor, pro-
cess shall be issued immediately. If the accused appear and plead to
the charge, the trial shall proceed without delay, unless good cause for
continuance be shown. If, being summoned, he fail to appear and
plead, and the indictment or presentment be founded on any provision
of chapter one hundred and eighty-five, or on a violation of any pro-
vision of the laws relating to the public revenue, the court may render
judgment in the same manner as if he had confessed the charge in
court; and if the offense be punishable by a fine not fixed by law, a
jury shall be impaneled to assess the same. But on indictment or
presentment for any other misdemeanor, after the summons has been
executed ten days, the court may either award a capias or proceed to
trial, in the same manner as if the accused had appeared and pleaded
not guilty; and any warrant charging any misdemeanor and returnable
before a trial justice, upon which the accused has been summoned, or
recognized, to appear before such trial justice, and shall fail to appear
in response to said summons or recognizance, may be tried by such
trial justice as if the accused had appeared and pleaded not guilty.