PRINTER'S NO. 57
No. 55 Session of 1979
INTRODUCED BY CIMINI, RHODES, FISHER, SPENCER, HELFRICK,
SCIRICA, WHITE AND McCLATCHY, FEBRUARY 5, 1979
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, FEBRUARY 5, 1979
AN ACT
1 Amending Title 42 (Judiciary and Judicial Procedure) of the
2 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, by providing for venue
3 and impaneling of juries and making repeals.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Title 42, act of November 25, 1970 (P.L.707,
7 No.230), known as the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, is
8 amended by adding a section to read:
9 § 5106.1. Venue and impaneling of juries in criminal cases.
10 (a) General rule.--In criminal prosecutions the venue may be
11 changed, on application of the defendant or defendants, or a
12 jury may be impaneled from another county, when the judge finds
13 it appropriate, in the following cases:
14 (1) When the judge, who by law is required to try the
15 same, is a near relative of the prosecutor, or of the
16 defendant, or of the person injured, or has knowledge of
17 facts which make it necessary that he should be a witness in
18 the case.
1 (2) When, upon the application of a defendant in a
2 felony, it is made to appear to the satisfaction of the court
3 that, from undue excitement against the prisoner, in the
4 county where the offense was committed, a fair trial cannot
5 be had, or that there exists in that county so great a
6 prejudice against him that he cannot obtain a fair trial, or
7 that there is a combination against him, instigated by
8 influential persons, by reason of which he cannot obtain a
9 fair trial.
10 (3) When, upon the trial of any criminal case, an
11 unsuccessful effort has been made to procure and impanel a
12 jury for the trial of the defendant, and it shall be made to
13 appear to the court by the written affidavit of some credible
14 witness that a fair trial cannot be had.
15 (4) When, upon second trial of any felonious homicide,
16 the evidence on the former trial thereof shall have been
17 published within the county in which the same is being tried,
18 and the regular panel of jurors shall be exhausted without
19 obtaining a jury.
20 (b) Applications.--All applications for changes of venue or
21 impaneling a jury from another county shall be made to the court
22 in which the indictment shall be pending, in such manner as the
23 said court shall direct, and before the jury shall be sworn
24 therein; and if the said court shall be satisfied of the
25 propriety of such change of venue or impaneling a jury, and that
26 the causes assigned therefor are true, and are within the
27 provisions of subsection (a), it shall be ordered that the venue
28 thereof shall be changed to or jury selected from some adjoining
29 or convenient county where the causes alleged for a change do
30 not exist.
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1 (c) Transcripts, records and costs.--
2 (1) When an order for a change of venue shall be made,
3 the clerk of the court shall make out a full and complete
4 transcript of the record and proceedings in said cause, and
5 transmit the same, together with the indictment and all the
6 other papers on file, to the clerk of the court to which the
7 venue is changed, which transcript shall be entered on the
8 minutes of said court; and the trial of said case shall be
9 conducted in the court to which it shall be removed in all
10 respects as if the indictment had been found in the county to
11 which the venue is changed; and the costs accruing from a
12 change of venue shall be paid by the county in which the
13 offense was committed.
14 (2) When an order for impaneling a jury from another
15 county is made, the clerk of the court shall transmit the
16 same to the clerk of the court of the county from which the
17 jury shall be impaneled and the jury shall be impaneled in
18 such other county as in other cases and transported to the
19 county in which the trial is to be held. Costs accruing from
20 impaneling the jury from another county shall be paid by the
21 county in which the offense was committed.
22 (d) Change of venue on application of defendant only.--In
23 criminal prosecutions the venue may be changed by the Supreme
24 Court of Pennsylvania, or the court in which the indictment
25 shall be pending, on application of the defendant or defendants
26 only, and not on application of the Commonwealth or the
27 prosecutor.
28 (e) Limitation on writ of certiorari.--No writ of certiorari
29 shall hereafter be issued by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
30 to remove the record of any criminal prosecution thereto for the
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1 purpose of changing the venue on petition of the Commonwealth or
2 the prosecutor, but such writs shall issue only on petition of
3 the defendant or defendants.
4 Section 2. The following acts are repealed:
5 The act of March 18, 1875 (P.L.30, No.34) entitled "An act to
6 authorize changes of venue in criminal cases."
7 The act of December 1, 1938 (Sp. Sess., P.L.109, No.43),
8 entitled "A supplement to the act approved the eighteenth day of
9 March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five (Pamphlet
10 Laws, thirty), entitled 'An act to authorize changes of venue in
11 criminal cases,' forbidding changes of venue in criminal
12 prosecutions by any court on application of the Commonwealth or
13 prosecutor."
14 Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
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