Home / Fulltext Opinions / Supreme Court of Virginia / WILLIAMS
v. WARDEN OF THE MECKLENBURG CORRECTIONAL CENTER (59876)
June 6, 1997 Record No. 960534      This is the first habeas
corpus petition filed by a prisoner held under a sentence of
death that we have addressed in a published opinion since the
applicable statute was amended effective July 1, 1995. See Acts
1995, ch. 503.  The 1995 amendment to Code ? 8.01-654 added
subsection (C). It provides that this Court shall have
"exclusive jurisdiction" to consider and award writs of habeas
corpus with respect to any such petition filed by a convict held
under a death sentence. ? 8.01-654(C)(1). The amendment further
provides that the circuit court "which entered the judgment
order setting the sentence of death shall have authority to
conduct an evidentiary hearing on such a petition only if
directed to do so by order of the Supreme Court." Id.  The
amendment fixes time limits within which the circuit court
"shall conduct" a hearing on the issues enumera