Chap. 397.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4 of the charter of the town
of Chatham.

Approved March 16, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
four of an act entitled “An act to amend and re-enact the charter of
the town of Chatham,” approved February twenty-first, eighteen hun-
dred and eighty-two, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§4. Said mayor and council shall have power to levy taxes for the
purposes of the corporation: provided, that the tax so levied upon the
real and personal property in said corporation shall not exceed the
amount of seventy-five cents upon the one hundred dollars assessed value
thereof. No citizen of said corporation shall be required to work on the
public roads nor to pay any road tax in Chatham magisterial district if
said corporation shall keep its streets and roads ‘in repair, within its
corporate limits.

2. An emergency existing by reason of the necessity of levying taxes
in said town immediately for its purposes, this act shall be in force from
its passage.
be imposed, to change the mode of execution so that the death sentence shall
be by electricity, and to provide an appropriation therefor.

Approved March 16, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the super-
intendent of the State penitentiary, at Richmond, is hereby authorized
and directed to provide a permanent death chamber within the confines
of said penitentiary, and which said death chamber shall have all fhe
necessary appliances for the proper execution of felons by electrocution.
In said death chamber shall be executed all felons upon whom the death
penalty has been imposed.

‘2. Each execution shall be conducted by the said superintendent or
some assistant or assistants designated by him.

3. The clerk of the court in which is pronounced the sentence of death
against any convict shall, as soon as may be, after such sentence, deliver
a certified copy thereof to the superintendent of the penitentiary at
Richmond. Not more than thirty nor less than fifteen days before the
time fixed, in the judgment of the court, for the execution of said sen-
tence, the superintendent of the penitentiary shall cause to be conveyed
to the said penitentiary such condemned felon in the manner now pre-
scribed by law for the conveyance of felons sentenced to confinement in
the penitentiary, and the superintendent, in his discretion, may appoint
more than one guard to convey the condemned felon, and the expenses
of such guard or guards shall be paid in the manner and under the
requirements now prescribed by law for the conveyance of convicts to
the penitentiary.

4. The said superintendent or the assistants appointed by him shall
proceed, unless a suspension of execution be ordered, at the time named
in said sentence to cause the said felon under sentence of death to be
electrocuted until he is dead.

At the execution there shall be present the superintendent, or his
assistants, the surgeon of the penitentiary or his assistant and twelve
respectable citizens. ‘The counsel for the convict and a minister of the
gospel may be present.

5. The superintend shall certify the fact of the execution of the
condemned felon to the clerk of the court hy which such sentence was
pronounced, who shall file such certificate with the papers of the case
and enter the same upon the records of the case.

6. Should the condemned felon, while in the custody of the superin-
tendent of the penitentiary, be granted a reprieve by the governor, or
obtain a writ of error from the Supreme court of appeals, or should the
execution of the sentence be stayed by any competent judicial proceeding,
notice of such reprieve or such writ of error or stay of execution shall
be served upon the superintendent of the penitentiary, as well as upon
the condemned felon, and the said superintendent shall yield obedience to
the same. In any subsequent proceeding the mandate of the court
having regard to the condemned felon, shall be served upon the superin-
tenuent of the penitentiary as well as the said felon. Should the said
felon be resentenced by the court, then the proceedings shall be as here-
inabove provided under the original sentence.
7. Should a new trial be granted such condemned felon after he has
been conveyed to the penitentiary, then he shall be conveyed back to
the place of trial by such guard or guards as the superintendent may
direct, their expenses to be-paid as is now provided by law for the con-
veyance of convicts to the penitentiary.

8. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to change or alter the
manner of execution of the sentence of death when imposed on: account
of crimes committed before this act goes into effect.

9. The sum of one thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be
necessary, is hereby appropriated out of the funds in the State treasury,
not already appropriated, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions
of section one of this act.

10. No newspaper or person shall print or publish the details of the
execution of criminals under this act. Only the fact that the criminal
was executed shall be printed or published.

11. Upon application of the relatives of the person executed, the body
after execution shall be returned to their address and at their cost.

12. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby
repealed.