Chap. 68.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled “an act to authorize
the governor to grant conditional pardon to persons confined in the peniten-
tiary upon recommendation of the board of directors of said institution,” ap-
proved March 3, 1898, as approved by an act approved February 3, 1900, as
amended by an act approved May 1, 1903.

Approved March 7, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act to
authorize the governor to grant a conditional pardon to persons confined
in the penitentiary upon recommendation of the board of directors of
said institution, approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-
eight, as amended by an act approved February third, nineteen hundred,
as amended by an act approved May first, nineteen hundred and three,
be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 1. Whenever it appears to the board of directors of the penitentiary
that a prisoner in that institution who was sentenced to the penitentiary
for any crime, has served out half of his term of imprisonment for which
he was sentenced, that he has kept the prison rules for the two years next
preceding the date of the expiration of one-half of his term (if he shall
have been confined in the penitentiary so long), as shown by the prison
records, and that he is a fit person to receive such parole, said board may,
in_its discretion, parole him during the remainder of his term of sentence
upon such terms and conditions as it may prescribe, if he has an as-
surance satisfactory to said board that he will have employment as soon
as he is discharged, or if otherwise so provided for that he will not be
dependent upon public or private charity. If the record shows that he
has violated the rules of the prison the board may, in its discretion,
parole him at such time after the expiration of one-half of the time for
which he was sentenced, as it shall determine.

§ 2. If the prisoner is held in the prison upon two or more sentences,
he may be paroled when he has served a term equal to the aggregate of
one-half of all the terms of the several sentences, and he shall be subject
to all of the provisions of this and the preceding section until the expi-
ration of a term equal to the aggregate of half the terms of all said sen-
tences.

§ 3. When a prisoner is paroled the board shall issue its warrant to

the superintendent of the penitentiary to carry into effect such parole.
There shall be attached to the warrant issued by the board to the superin-
tendent of the penitentiary the conditions and the restrictions under
which the parole is granted, and the said superintendent shall cause a
copy thereof to be certified to the clerk of the court in the county or cor-
poration in which the offender was convicted, to be preserved by the said
clerk as other records are.
_ §4. When a convict is paroled on conditions to be observed and per-
formed by him, and such conditions are violated, he shall, upon complaint
being made before a justice of the peace or any other officer authorized by
law to issue warrants of arrest, be forthwith apprehended and brought
before the circuit court of the city of Richmond, or any circuit or corpo-
ration court in whose jurisdiction he violated said conditions, and the
said court shall investigate the charges, and if the said person is found
guilty of violating the conditions of his parole he shall be returned to
the penitentiary, there to serve out the unexpired term of his sentence;
and in computing the time of his confinement the time during the pen-
dency of any appeal from the trial court in which he was sentenced for
the original offence and the time between the conditional parole and his
subsequent arrest shall not be taken to be a part of the term of his im-
prisonment.

-§5. Persons who are serving life sentences upon third convictions for
larceny may be paroled as provided in this act after having served ten
years of their term of imprisonment, and persons serving life sentences
for other crimes may be paroled under the provisions of this act so far as
same is applicable after serving fifteen years of their sentence.

§ 6. This act is not to be construed as in any way interfering with or
abridging the authority now conferred on the governor by law with
reference to granting pardons.
§ 7. This act shall be in force on and after July first, nineteen hun-
dred and four.