CHAPTER 487

An Act to permit the giving of evidence by certain prisoners and to
prescribe the conditions thereof.
[S 337]

Approved April 2, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. Whenever any party in a civil proceeding in any court of record in
this State shall require as a witness in his behalf, a convict or jail
prisoner in the Penitentiary, or on the State Farm, or in a State convict
road camp, the judge of such court, on the application of such party
or his attorney may, in his discretion and upon consideration of the
importance of the personal appearance of the witness and the nature
of the offense for which he is imprisoned, issue a summons for such witness
and place it in the hands of the sheriff of the county, or sergeant of the
city, as the case may be, who shall go where such witness may then be and
serve him with such summons. Under such conditions as shall be pre-
scribed by the Superintendent of the Penitentiary, such officer shall carry
the convict to the court to testify as such witness, and after he shall have
so testified and been released as such witness, carry him back to the place
whence he came, for all of which service and expenses such officers shall
be paid such compensation as the court in which the case is pending may
certify to be reasonable.

If necessary the sheriff or sergeant may confine the convict for
the night in any convenient city or county jail, penitentiary or convict
road camp.

Under such rules and regulations as the Superintendent of the Peni-
tentiary may prescribe, any party to a civil proceeding in any court of
record in this State may take the deposition of a convict or jail prisoner in
the Penitentiary, or on the State Farm, or in a State convict road camp,
which deposition, when taken, may be admissible in evidence as other
depositions in civil proceedings.

The party seeking the testimony of such prisoner shall advance a
sum sufficient to defray the expenses and compensation of the officers,
which the court, in its discretion, may tax as other costs.