Whenever in any criminal case a defendant is required to recognize with surety or sureties, or has given a recognizance in the case, any justice of the district court, when the complaint is pending in the court or the person is held to answer to the court, or any justice of the superior court, may, on motion of the attorney general, require the defendant to be brought before the justice to show cause why he or she should not be required to give a new recognizance with surety or sureties in place of the one already required or given, and the justice in his or her discretion, if good cause is shown, may require the defendant to give in place of the recognizance already given or required a new recognizance in the same sum as that originally required or given with other and sufficient surety or sureties, or to give a new recognizance with surety or sureties in a different sum than that originally required or given, as to the justice may seem reasonable, to do and to perform the conditions of the recognizance already given or required. In case the defendant shall fail to give the new recognizance required of him or her, the defendant shall immediately be committed to the penal institution to which he or she would have been committed if he or she had failed to give the recognizance originally required there to remain until he or she shall give the new recognizance as required of him or her before some justice or person authorized to take it, or until he or she shall be discharged pursuant to law.
History of Section.
G.L. 1909, ch. 354, § 30; P.L. 1915, ch. 1261, § 1; G.L. 1923, ch. 407, § 30; G.L. 1938, ch. 625, § 30; G.L. 1956, § 12-13-11; P.L. 1969, ch. 239, § 20.