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COMMITTEE ON RULES AND JUDICIARY 12/12/2024-REPORTED OUT TO THE FLOOR BILL NO. 35-0425 Thirty-Fifth Legislature of the Virgin Islands December 10, 2024 An Act to amend various sections of title 5 Virgin Islands Code PROPOSED BY: Senator Diane T. Capehart Be it enacted by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands: 1 SECTION 1. Title 5 Virgin Islands Code is amended in the following instances: 2 (a) In section 324, by striking “give” and inserting “given”; 3 (b) In section 658, first sentence, by striking “district court” and inserting 4 “Superior Court of the Virgin Islands”; 5 (c) In section 660, by striking “district court” and inserting “Superior Court” and 6 by striking “, or before a district court commissioner”; 7 (d) In section 1172, in the introductory paragraph, strike “United States attorney” 8 and insert “Attorney General of the Virgin Islands”; 9 (e) In section 1173, subsection (a), strike “United States attorney in the District 10 Court” and insert “Attorney General of the Virgin Islands in the Superior Court”; 11 (f) In section 1174, subsection (b), strike “United States attorney” and insert 12 “Attorney General of the Virgin Islands”; 13 2 (g) In section 1204, in the heading by striking “Clerk of the district court” and 1 inserting “Clerk of the Superior Court”, and in the text by striking “clerk of the district 2 court” and inserting “clerk of the Superior Court”; 3 (h) In section 1206, by striking “district court” and inserting “Superior Court”; 4 (i) In section 1207, by striking “district court” and inserting “Superior Court of 5 the Virgin Islands”; 6 (j) In section 1303, by striking “district court” and inserting “Superior Court of 7 the Virgin Islands”; 8 (k) In section 1361, subsection (a), by striking “district court” and inserting 9 “Superior Court” and striking “inferior court”; 10 (l) In section 1423: 11 (1) In the first sentence by inserting a comma after “chapter” and by 12 striking “shall have” and inserting “has the”; and 13 (2) In the second sentence by inserting a comma after “review”, by striking 14 “district” where it appears in the first instance and by striking “such district” and 15 inserting “the”; 16 (m) In section 2512, by inserting a comma after “interrogation”, by striking “and 17 understood them” after “self-incrimination” and by inserting “understood those rights 18 and waived the constitutional right against self-incrimination in a contemporaneously 19 signed writing”; 20 (n) In section 2527, subsection (c) is amended by striking “five hundred dollars 21 ($500.00)” and inserting “ $1,000”; 22 (o) In section 2528, subsection (b) is amended by striking “five hundred dollars 23 ($500.00)” and inserting “$1,000”; 24 3 (p) In section 2529, subsection (d) is amended by striking “five hundred dollars 1 ($500.00)” and inserting “$1,000”; 2 (q) In section 2540, subsection (a) by striking “$500” and inserting “$1,000”; 3 (r) In section 3541, subsection (a), paragraph (2), by striking “with” and 4 inserting “within”; 5 (s) In section 3566: 6 (1) In subsection (b) by inserting “or dwelling” after the first instance of 7 “house” and by inserting “or dwelling,” after the second instance of “house”; and 8 (2) In subsections (c) and (d) by inserting “or dwelling” after “house”; 9 (t) By adding a section 3567 to read: 10 “§ 3567. Use of force; shots discharged at moving vehicles; prohibition. 11 When an officer is making an arrest or has advised a suspect of the officer’s 12 intent to make an arrest, if the suspect flees by motor vehicle, the officer may not 13 discharge a firearm at the moving vehicle except in cases when: 14 (1) the suspect is immediately threatening the officer or another person 15 with deadly force by means other than the vehicle; or 16 (2) the vehicle is intentionally being used as a deadly weapon and all other 17 reasonable means of defense have been exhausted or are not present, or practical.” 18 BILL SUMMARY 19 This bill updates various outdated sections of title 5 Virgin Islands Code to conform to 20 current law and practice including replacing the District Court and the United States Attorney 21 with the Superior Court and the Attorney General, respectively, as applicable. 22 BR24-1420/December 10, 2024/AWC Jr 23