Chap. 172.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4989 of the Code of Virginia,
relating to right of appeal in certain cases. [H B 235]

“Approved March 22, 1932

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

Section 4989. Any person convicted by a justice under the pro-
visions of sections forty-nine hundred and eighty-seven and forty-
nine hundred. and eighty-eight shall have the right, at any time
within ten days from such conviction, to appeal to the circuit court
of the county or corporation or hustings court of the corporation, as
the case may be. When an appeal is taken at the time the judgment
is rendered, the accused shall, unless let to bail, be committed to jail
by the justice until the next term of such court, and the witnesses
recognized to appear at the same time. When an, appeal is taken sub-
sequent to the entry of the judgment of conviction, the justice shall
enter the allowance of the appeal on the warrant, and he, or the cir-
cuit court of the county or corporation or hustings court of the cor-
poration, or the judge thereof, as the case may be, may admit the
accused to bail. The justice shall forthwith return and file papers
with the clerk of the court, whether the appeal be applied for or not.
Upon the trial of the warrant in the circuit court of the county or
corporation or hustings court of the corporation, the court shall have
authority upon its own motion, or upon the request either of the at-
torney for the Commonwealth, or for the accused, to amend the form
of the warrant in any respect in which it appears to be defective.
But when the warrant is so defective in form that it does not substan-
tially appear from the same what is the offense with which the ac-
cused is charged, or even when it is not so seriously defective, the
judge of the court having examined on oath the original complainant,
if there be one, or if he sees good reason to believe that an offense
has been committed, then without examination of witnesses may issue
under his own hand his warrant, reciting the offense and requiring the
defendant in the original warrant to be arrested and brought before
him. Upon the arrest of the defendant on the new warrant and his
production or appearance in court the trial shall proceed upon the new
warrant. Where there is an amendment of the original warrant the
trial shall proceed on the amended warrant. But whether the warrant
is amended or new warrant is issued, the court before proceeding to
trial on the same may grant a continuance to the Commonwealth, or to
the prisoner upon such terms as to costs as may be proper under the
circumstances of the case. |

Where a warrant is amended or a new warrant is issued the costs
already accrued shall be taxed against the defendant, if he is ulti-
mately convicted, as a part of the costs arising under the new or
amended warrant. But the Commonwealth shall not be liable for the
costs of the defendant.
In any case involving the violation of a law relating to the State
revenue tried by a justice under the provisions of the aforesaid sec-
tions, the Commonwealth shall also have the right, at any time within
ten days from final judgment, to appeal to the circuit court of the
county or corporation or hustings court of the corporation as the
case may be.