SENATE BILL 3041: COMPASSIONATE CARE FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT ACT Amending O.C.G.A. § 35-1-2 First Signature: Senator Elena Parent (42nd) Co-Sponsors: Senator Harold Jones II (22nd) Summary: Senate Bill 304 seeks to amend Chapter 1 of Title 35 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions for law enforcement officers and agencies, to provide requirements for submitting certain evidence collected from a forensic medical examination to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The law would speed the transfer of forensic evidence from local law enforcement to state investigators, as well as require more detailed record keeping of forensic evidence by local police.2 Status: Signed by Governor Nathan Deal on April 26, 2016, with an effective date of July 1, 20163 TEXT OF SENATE BILL 3044: § 1. This Act shall be known and may be cited as the “Compassionate Care for Victims of Sexual Assault Act.” § 2. Chapter 1 of Title 35 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions for law enforcement officers and agencies, is amended by revising Code Section 35-1-2, which was previously reserved, as follows: 35-1-2 (a) As used in this Code section, the term: (1) ‘Division’ means the Division of Forensic Sciences of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
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S.B. 304, 153rd Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Ga. 2016), http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/162518.pdf [hereinafter S.B. 304]. 2 Id. 3 2015-2016 Regular Session-SB 304, Compassionate Care for Victims of Sexual Assault Act of 2016; enact, GA. GEN. ASSEMB., http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/enUS/display/20152016/SB/304. 4 S.B. 304, supra note 1.
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(2) ‘Medical examination’ means an examination pursuant to subsection © of Code Section 16-6-1 or subsection (c) of Code Section 16-6-2. When a forensic medical examination is performed, evidence is collected, and the alleged victim has requested that law enforcement officials be notified, the individual performing such exam, or his or her designee, shall notify the appropriate law enforcement agency of the collection of such evidence and provide a summary of all rights guaranteed to the alleged victim pursuant to the Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights established to Code Section 17-17-1, et seq., as provided by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. At the time of the examination, no alleged victim shall be required to assign or waive any rights afforded to them in the Crime Victim’s Bill of Rights or that might prevent the alleged victim from seeking relief form the Crime Victims Compensation Board. Law enforcement officials shall take possession of such evidence no later than 96 hours of being notified. It shall be the duty of every law enforcement officer who takes possession of the evidence as provided in subsection (b) of this Code section to ensure that such evidence is submitted to the division within 30 days of it being collected, in accordance with the procedures established by the division. When a forensic medical examination was performed before July 1, 2016, evidence was collected and the alleged victim requested that law enforcement officials be notified the individuals who performed such exam or his or her designee, shall notify the appropriate law enforcement agency of the collection of such evidence on or before July 15, 2016, and law enforcement officials shall take possession of such evidence on or before July 31, 2016. It shall be the duty of every law enforcement officer who takes possession of the evidence as provided in this Code section to ensure that such evidence is submitted to the division by August 31, 2016, in accordance with the procedure established by the division. It shall be the duty of every law enforcement agency to create a list of evidence resulting from a forensic medical examination that is in such agency’s possession on August 1, 2016, identifying such evidence as needing to be tested and submitting such listing of information to the division by August 15, 2016. A failure to comply with the provision of this Code section shall not affect the admissibility of evidence collected from a forensic medical examination.
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(g) Beginning December 1, 2016, the division shall issue an annual report detailing the number of cases for which it has tested evidence pursuant to this Code section and the number of cases that are awaiting testing. Such report shall be provided to the executive counsel of the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Lieutenant Governor, the members of the House Committee on Judiciary, Non-civil, the members of the Senate Judiciary, Non-civil Committee, the House Committee on Health and Human Services, and the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and posted online at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s website. Reserved § 3. All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed. SPONSOR’S RATIONALE: Representative Scott Holcomb, of the 81st district, authored the Compassionate Care for Victims of Sexual Assault Act (the “Bill”) to “ensure timely processing of rape kits from care providers to local law enforcement to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.”5 Creating a statewide uniform process for the collection and handling of Rape Kits, Rep. Holcomb believes this is a first step towards a system that better serves victims of sexual assault.6 As the law currently stands, Georgia did not have a uniform system for processing rape kits.7 Each jurisdiction had its own procedure for the handling of rape kits and we know that a large number were not moving on to be tested.8 This issue is “not limited to one city, hospital or county … and we do not have a full understanding of the depth of this problem.” 9 This Bill will “answer the question for us, just how bad this problem is.”10 Contrary to the oppositions contention that the rape kits were only a problem in two counties, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation list of submitted previously untested kits proves that this is good legislation.11 SB 304, previously HB 827, is the first step of many, in Representative Holcomb’s goal to reduce violence against women across 5
Rape Test Kit Bill Press Conference, THE POST BROOKHAVEN (Mar. 16, 2016), http://brookhavenpost.co/2016/03/16/video-rep-scott-holcomb-holds-press-conference-onpursuing-justice-for-rape-victims-act/. 6 Telephone Interview with Rep. Scott Holcomb, 81st district, Georgia General Assembly (September 23, 2016) [hereinafter Holcomb interview]. 7 Rape Test Kit Bill Press Conference, supra note 5. 8 Holcomb interview, supra note 6. 9 Rape Test Kit Bill Press Conference, supra note 5. 10 Id. 11 Id.
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the board.12 Representative Holcomb recognized that Georgia had a problem when it came to a consistent system of ensuring the timely processing of rape kits.13 A 2015 investigation report by the Atlanta Journal Constitution revealed Atlanta’s own Grady Memorial Hospital withheld over fifteen hundred sex crimes, including more than 130 where the victims asked the hospital to alert police.14 There is a need for a system in place that would make victims of sexual assault feel confident in the system.15 Victims of sexual assault go through an “unbelievable horrible experience …, invasive process for the rape kit to be taken, evidence to be gathered; it is shameful for us to then not insure that each and every one of those moves on and is tested.”16 Rep. Holcomb sees this Bill as a vehicle to changing the larger problem of violence towards women in general.17 This is not just a Georgia problem, across the country it has been shown “evidence that has been identified by forcing testing of kits has led to prosecutions of serial rapists.”18 Representative Holcomb made it very clear “that we have a public safety interest in making sure that the legislature is taking action now when there is a solution now, not next year.”19 HB 827, before becoming SB 304, had 70 co-sponsors and passed the house unanimously.20 This bipartisan support shows all of Georgia that this is “common sense legislation.”21 OPPOSITIONS RATIONALE: A lone senator provided opposition to the language of SB 304. Sen. Renee Unterman opposed the Bill and denied requests for a hearing.22 Sen. 12
Holcomb interview, supra note 6. Id. 14 Willoughby Mariano, Locked Away: Grady withheld rape evidence from police, ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION (June 12, 2015, 6:00 PM), http://www.myajc.com/news/news/crime-law/locked-away/nmcFj/. 15 Holcomb interview, supra note 6. 16 Rape Test Kit Bill Press Conference, supra note 5. 17 Id. 18 Id. 19 Id. 20 H.B. 827, 153rd Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Ga. 2016), http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20152016/HB/827 [hereinafter Ga. H.B. 827]. See also Trey Benton, Video: Rep. Scott Holcomb holds Press Conference on “Pursuing Justice for Rape Victims Act,” THE POST – BROOKHAVEN (March 16, 2016), http://brookhavenpost.co/2016/03/16/video-rep-scott-holcomb-holds-press-conference-onpursuing-justice-for-rape-victims-act/. 21 Holcomb interview, supra note 7; see also Rape Test Kit Bill Press Conference, supra note 5. 22 Willoughby Mariano, Bill that would count neglected rape evidence in trouble in Ga. Senate, ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION (Mar. 11, 2016, 4:07 PM), 13
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Unterman stated that she didn’t see a reason to write a law for problems that are in Dekalb and Fulton County only.23 Sen. Unterman spoke before the Senate on March 15, 2016, explaining that “in 2015, Sen. Unterman and others in the legislature created a task force to study the issue of rapes on college campuses in Georgia.”24 The task force issued a final report on January 8, 2016, stating “it appeared as if law enforcement officials were taking care of any issues and the task force would re visit the issue in the next year if they needed to.”25 IMPLICATIONS IN GEORGIA Georgia has a real problem with women who wanted to move forward in the legal process and simply were falling through the cracks.26 This Bill does not require the testing of these kits, but rather this Bill fixes an issue of chain of custody.27 The biggest change for agencies in Georgia is that now instead of holding onto a kit they are required to send every kit to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (“GBI”) no matter what.28 The influx of previously untested rape kits has put a strain on the GBI’s resources. To address the backlog, the GBI will be outsourcing the kits to out-of-state labs for testing to speed up the investigation process.29 This Bill created a new chain of custody for rape kits collected after July 1, 2016.30 Any kits collected prior to July 1, 2016, that had not been previously submitted had to be submitted to the GBI by August 31, 2016.31 As of September 1, 2016, the GBI had received 1,994 previously untested rape kits.32 Agencies that have submitted kits for testing since SB304 has been http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/bill-that-would-countneglected-rape-evidence-in-t/nqjMd/. 23 Id. 24 Video Sen. Unterman regarding H.B. 827; http://www.ajc.com/videos/news/statesen-renee-unterman-r-buford-speaks-out-on/vDprD7/. 25 Id; see also Final Report of the Senate Study Committee on Sexual Assault: Before the Health and Human Services Committee, 153rd Gen. Assemb. Reg. Sess., (Ga. 2016), http://www.senate.ga.gov/sro/Documents/StudyCommRpts/SexualAssault2015.pdf. 26 Id. 27 Id. 28 James Torrez, Georgia Bureau of Investigation finds over 3,000 untested rape kits, NEWS CHANNEL 9 ABC, (Aug. 24, 2016), http://newschannel9.com/news/local/georgiabureau-of-investigation-finds-over-3000-untested-rape-kits. 29 Id. 30 S.B. 304, supra note 1. 31 Id. 32 E-mail from Nelly Mile, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Affairs for Georgia Bureau of Investigation, to Rep. Scott Holcomb, Representative 81st District Georgia General Assembly (Sept. 1, 2016, 4:45 PM) (on file with the John Marshall Law Journal) [hereinafter GBI email].
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law, confirms to the legislature, that this is a state wide issue, not just an issue in the bigger jurisdictions. 33 There have been 164 agencies across the Georgia to submit untested rape kits.34 Rep. Holcomb acknowledged the unknown added cost to the agencies impacted by this Bill. Now that the agencies have turned in their outstanding kits, the legislature can now gauge the full extent of the problem and how much money it will take to fix it.35 LEGISLATIVE GENEALOGY Rep. Holcomb, along with a bi-partisan group of legislators introduced H.B 827: Pursing Justice for Rape Victims Act on January 22, 2016.36 The first reading of the Bill occurred on January 25, 2016, and was assigned to the Judiciary non-civil committee and the Health and Human Services committee.37 Both committees returned favorable reports on February 11, 2016, and was adopted and passed unanimously by the House on February 23, 2016.38 Once the Bill moved to the Senate it appeared that H.B. 827 was stalled.39 Senator Elena Parent, 42nd District, was sponsoring S.B. 304: Criminal Records; allow for the preservation of a person’s involuntary hospitalization information received by Georgia Crime Information.40 Senator Elena Parent agreed to delete the language from S.B. 304, replace it with the language form H.B. 827 and allowed the bill to live and pass.41 The Bill cleared its final hurdle with a unanimous House vote on March 24, 2015 and Governor Nathan Deal signed S.B. 304 into law April 26, 2016.42 Prepared by: Brandi Munroe Sluss
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Holcomb interview, supra note 6. GBI email, supra note 30. 35 Id. 36 H.B. 827, supra note 17. 37 Id. 38 Id. 39 Id. 40 S.B. 304, supra note 1; see also Margie Miller, 2016 Legislative Session Wrap-up report, AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS (April 2016), http://www.augusta.edu/gov/documents/leg6.pdf. 41 Holcomb interview, supra note 7; see also Email from Stephanie Tanner, Legislative Assistant to Senator Elena C. Parent, to Brandi Munroe Sluss, Staff Member, John Marshall Law Journal (Sept. 6, 2016, 1:18 PM) (on file with the John Marshall Law Journal). 42 Claire Simms, Governor Deal signs rape kit testing bill into law, FOX 5 (April 26, 2016, 1:08 PM, updated April 26, 2016, 7:37 PM), http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/132875089-story. 34
