Q: what can we do when friend was moved from jail and they dropped the court date
my friend got 25 years in jail for something. first offense had a court appointed lawyer that did nothing. i hired a lawyer that filed a motion to reconsider time. for six months we waited for the court date and then a few weeks before his court date my friend was moved. now the lawyer said that there is nothing that we can do even though the judge signed this order. I do not understand why he can not call the judge and say that his client had a court date that he signed and to keep him where he was at and someone moved him. the lawyer is saying that there is nothing that he can do. I do not believe this
A: If I understand your question correctly, your friend was sentenced, and was still being held locally at the local jail awaiting his transfer to the prison with Virginia's department of corrections. Unfortunately, I do not believe that there is anything that can be done. Virginia Code section 19.2-303 indicates that the Judge has jurisdiction to suspend or modify the sentence, while your friend was still being held locally. However, once your friend was transferred, the judge no longer had jurisdiction to modify the sentence. The only thing that could have changed that would be if the judge set aside the previous sentencing order once s/he set the hearing for the reconsideration. But that's totally up to the judge to do that, and many are not going to do that.
Steve Miyares agrees with this answer
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