Florida Senate - 2024                              CS for SB 768
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Health Policy; and Senator Stewart
       
       
       
       
       
       588-03020-24                                           2024768c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to duties and prohibited acts
    3         associated with death; amending s. 406.12, F.S.;
    4         authorizing that a report regarding specified deaths
    5         and circumstances be made to a certain law enforcement
    6         agency in addition to the district medical examiner;
    7         increasing the criminal penalty for persons who fail
    8         or refuse to report a death or who refuse to make
    9         available certain information with the intent to
   10         conceal the death or alter the evidence and
   11         circumstances surrounding the death; increasing the
   12         criminal penalty for persons who willfully touch,
   13         remove, or disturb a body without an order from the
   14         office of the district medical examiner with the
   15         intent to conceal the death or alter the evidence and
   16         circumstances surrounding the death; providing an
   17         effective date.
   18          
   19  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   20  
   21         Section 1. Section 406.12, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   22  read:
   23         406.12 Duty to report; prohibited acts.—
   24         (1) It is the duty of any person in the district where a
   25  death occurs, including all municipalities and unincorporated
   26  and federal areas, who becomes aware of the death of any person
   27  occurring under the circumstances described in s. 406.11 to
   28  report such death and circumstances forthwith to the district
   29  medical examiner or to a law enforcement agency having
   30  jurisdiction over the location.
   31         (2) Any person who knowingly fails or refuses to report
   32  such death and circumstances as required under subsection (1)
   33  or, who refuses to make available prior medical or other
   34  information pertinent to the death investigation commits a
   35  misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s.
   36  775.082 or s. 775.083.
   37         (3) Any person, or who, with the intent to conceal such
   38  death or to alter the evidence or circumstances surrounding such
   39  death:
   40         (a) Violates subsection (2); or
   41         (b) Without an order from the office of the district
   42  medical examiner, willfully touches, removes, or disturbs the
   43  body, clothing, or any article upon or near the body, with the
   44  intent to alter the evidence or circumstances surrounding the
   45  death, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first
   46  
   47  commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in
   48  s. 775.082, or s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
   49         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.