Florida Senate - 2018                                     SB 178
       
       
        
       By Senator Garcia
       
       
       
       
       
       36-00097-18                                            2018178__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to crimes evidencing prejudice;
    3         amending s. 775.085, F.S.; requiring reclassified
    4         crimes to include actual or perceived sex, creed, or
    5         employment in specified jobs of the victims; defining
    6         the term “emergency service employee”; reenacting s.
    7         921.0022(2), F.S., relating to the Criminal Punishment
    8         Code and the offense severity ranking chart, to
    9         incorporate the amendment made to s. 775.085, F.S., in
   10         a reference thereto; providing an effective date.
   11          
   12  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   13  
   14         Section 1. Subsection (1) of section 775.085, Florida
   15  Statutes, is amended to read:
   16         775.085 Evidencing prejudice while committing offense;
   17  reclassification.—
   18         (1)(a) The penalty for any felony or misdemeanor shall be
   19  reclassified as provided in this subsection if the commission of
   20  such felony or misdemeanor evidences prejudice based on the
   21  actual or perceived race, sex, creed, color, ancestry,
   22  ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin,
   23  homeless status, or advanced age of the victim or based on the
   24  actual or perceived employment of the victim as a law
   25  enforcement officer or an emergency service employee:
   26         1. A misdemeanor of the second degree is reclassified to a
   27  misdemeanor of the first degree.
   28         2. A misdemeanor of the first degree is reclassified to a
   29  felony of the third degree.
   30         3. A felony of the third degree is reclassified to a felony
   31  of the second degree.
   32         4. A felony of the second degree is reclassified to a
   33  felony of the first degree.
   34         5. A felony of the first degree is reclassified to a life
   35  felony.
   36         (b) As used in paragraph (a), the term:
   37         1. “Advanced age” means that the victim is older than 65
   38  years of age.
   39         2. “Emergency service employee” has the same meaning as in
   40  s. 496.404.
   41         3.2. “Homeless status” means that the victim:
   42         a. Lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime
   43  residence; or
   44         b. Has a primary nighttime residence that is:
   45         (I) A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter
   46  designed to provide temporary living accommodations; or
   47         (II) A public or private place not designed for, or
   48  ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human
   49  beings.
   50         Section 2. For the purpose of incorporating the amendment
   51  made by this act to section 775.085, Florida Statutes, in a
   52  reference thereto, subsection (2) of section 921.0022, Florida
   53  Statutes, is reenacted to read:
   54         921.0022 Criminal Punishment Code; offense severity ranking
   55  chart.—
   56         (2) The offense severity ranking chart has 10 offense
   57  levels, ranked from least severe, which are level 1 offenses, to
   58  most severe, which are level 10 offenses, and each felony
   59  offense is assigned to a level according to the severity of the
   60  offense. For purposes of determining which felony offenses are
   61  specifically listed in the offense severity ranking chart and
   62  which severity level has been assigned to each of these
   63  offenses, the numerical statutory references in the left column
   64  of the chart and the felony degree designations in the middle
   65  column of the chart are controlling; the language in the right
   66  column of the chart is provided solely for descriptive purposes.
   67  Reclassification of the degree of the felony through the
   68  application of s. 775.0845, s. 775.085, s. 775.0861, s.
   69  775.0862, s. 775.0863, s. 775.087, s. 775.0875, s. 794.023, or
   70  any other law that provides an enhanced penalty for a felony
   71  offense, to any offense listed in the offense severity ranking
   72  chart in this section shall not cause the offense to become
   73  unlisted and is not subject to the provisions of s. 921.0023.
   74         Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.