State Ex Rel. Boso v. Warmuth

Neely, Chief Justice:

In this prohibition proceeding we are asked to determine whether the respondents are barred from prosecuting the relator on felony indictments returned by grand juries in Marshall County under the “Three Term Rule,” W.Va. Code, 62-3-21 [1959]. Since the relator fled the State to avoid prosecution, the real question is not whether three terms have passed since the relator was indicted, but whether the State acted with reasonable diligence under the “Three Term Rule” to procure his return and trial after he was located in a foreign jurisdiction. We conclude that, under the…