Chap. 417.—An ACT to amend and reenact Section 5054 of the Code of Virginia,
relating to additional terms of confinement of convicts who have ay oe
viously confined in penitentiary. ]

Approved April 1, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section five thousand fifty-four of the Code of Virginia be
amended and reenacted as follows:

Section 5054. When a person convicted of an offense, and sentenced
to confinement therefor in the penitentiary, is received therein, if it
shall come to the knowledge of the Superintendent of the penitentiary
that he has been sentenced to a like punishment in the United States

rior to the sentence he is then. serving, the superintendent shall give
information thereof without delay to the Circuit Court of the city of
Richmond. The said court shall cause the convict to be brought before
it, to be tried upon an information filed, alleging the existence of records
or prior convictions and the identity of the prisoner with the person
named in each. The prisoner may deny the existence of any such records,
or that he is the same person named therein, or both. Either party may,
for good cause shown, have a continuance of the case for such reasonable
time as may be fixed by the court. The existence of such records, if
denied by the prisoner, shall be first determined by the court, and if it
be found by the court that such records exist, and the prisoner says
that he is not the same person mentioned in such records, or remains
silent, his plea, or the fact of his silence, shall be entered of record, and
‘a jury of bystanders shall be impaneled to inquire whether the convict
is the same person mentioned in the several records. If they find that
he is not the same person, he shall be remanded to the penitentiary ; but
if they find that he is the same person, or if he acknowledge in open
court, after being duly cautioned, that he is the same person, the court
may sentence him to further confinement in the penitentiary for a period
of not exceeding five years, if he has been once before sentenced in the
United States to confinement in the penitentiary; but if he has been
twice sentenced in the United States to such confinement, he may be
sentenced to be confined in the penitentiary for such additional time as
the court trying the case may deem proper. This section, however, shall
not apply to successive convictions of petit larceny.