Florida Senate - 2019                                     SB 606
       
       
        
       By Senator Pizzo
       
       
       
       
       
       38-01549-19                                            2019606__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to sexual battery offenses; amending
    3         s. 775.15, F.S.; increasing the statute of limitations
    4         period for specified sexual battery offenses committed
    5         on or after a specified date; amending s. 943.326,
    6         F.S.; requiring the Department of Law Enforcement to
    7         adopt a system for tracking sexual offense evidence
    8         test kits by a specified date; requiring the
    9         department to develop policies and procedures
   10         concerning victim access to information from such
   11         kits; providing an effective date.
   12          
   13  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   14  
   15         Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (14) of section
   16  775.15, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   17         775.15 Time limitations; general time limitations;
   18  exceptions.—
   19         (14)
   20         (b)1. Except as provided in paragraph (a) or paragraph
   21  (13)(b), a prosecution for a first or second degree felony
   22  violation of s. 794.011, if the victim is 16 years of age or
   23  older at the time of the offense, must be commenced within 8
   24  years after the violation is committed. This subparagraph
   25  paragraph applies to any such offense except an offense the
   26  prosecution of which would have been barred by subsection (2) on
   27  or before July 1, 2015.
   28         2. Except as provided in paragraph (a) or paragraph
   29  (13)(b), a prosecution for a first or second degree felony
   30  violation of s. 794.011, if the victim is 16 years of age or
   31  older at the time of the offense, must be commenced within 15
   32  years after the violation is committed. This subparagraph
   33  applies to any such offense except an offense the prosecution of
   34  which would have been barred by subsection (2) or subparagraph
   35  1. on or before July 1, 2019.
   36         Section 2. Subsection (5) of section 943.326, Florida
   37  Statutes, is renumbered as subsection (6), and a new subsection
   38  (5) is added to that section, to read:
   39         943.326 DNA evidence collected in sexual offense
   40  investigations.—
   41         (5) By January 1, 2020, the department shall:
   42         (a) Adopt a statewide information management system to
   43  track the location, lab submission status, testing, completion,
   44  and storage of each kit required to be submitted for testing
   45  under subsection (1).
   46         (b) Develop policies and procedures to ensure each victim
   47  has access to information regarding the victim’s sexual offense
   48  evidence kit, including, but not limited to, information
   49  regarding when the kit was tested, whether any DNA was obtained
   50  from the testing of the kit, whether such DNA was entered into
   51  the DNA database established under s. 943.325, a national DNA
   52  database, or any other DNA database, and, if so, whether the
   53  sample derived from the kit satisfactorily matches a profile in
   54  a DNA database.
   55         Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2019.