CHAP. 418.—An ACT to authorize and empower the attorneys for the Com-
monwealth to supply lost, destroyed or stolen indictments.

(H. B. 5385.)
Approved March 21, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
when an indictment for any offense has been regularly found
by a grand jury and the record shows the finding thereof, and
a return of “a true bill” by a grand jury, and thereafter the in-
dictment is lost, destroyed or stolen from the clerk’s office or
from the place where the indictments are kept, then upon the
affidavit of the custodian of the indictment, or upon the certifi-
cate of the clerk of the court in which the indictment was found,
that said indictment has been lost. destroyed or stolen and can-
not after due diligence be found, the attorney for the Common-
wealth is authorized and empowered to supply said indictment
by making a copy thereof, and the trial of the defendant on said
indictment shall proceed in the same manner as if the copy were
the original indictment; but no trial shall be had on such copy
until the court, after a hearing, shall certify in its order that
the copy is correct.

2. That this act shall apply to all indictments heretofore
found as well as to those hereafter found and any regular or
special grand jury; provided, that as to indictments heretofore
found this act shall apply only to such as are now pending on
the dockets of the several courts and in which no final order
has been entered dismissing the case.

3. That as indictments now pending in the courts of this
Commonwealth have been lost, destroyed or stolen, an emer-
gency exists and this act shall be in force from its passage.