Rice v. Commonwealth

Herman Clarence Rice, Jr., was convicted by a jury of second degree murder and sentenced in accordance with the jury’s verdict to confinement in the State penitentiary for a period of eighteen years. Rice’s sole contention on this appeal is that the trial court erred in overruling his motion for a continuance because his counsel, Thomas W. Moss, Jr., was a member of the General Assembly of Virginia, which was in session at the time his case was tried, and he was entitled to a continuance under Code § 30-5, as amended.

The pertinent portion of Code § 30-5 reads as follows:

*779“Any party to an…