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The Office of the Ohio Public Defender takes an active role in keeping current on new laws, rules, and regulations that affect criminal defense issues. To the extent our resources allow, we actively testify on bills and other proposed changes that impact the criminal defense system.
Please see the Legislative Links for copies of Bills, Analyses and Fiscal Notes. The following are summaries of legislation that impact the criminal justice system, and have been passed or introduced by the Ohio
127th General Assembly.
127th
General Assembly
Legislation
of Interest
House
Bills
HB
15 Human
trafficking
Relative
to trafficking in persons.
House
Judiciary Committee
HB
22 Animal
cruelty
To
increase certain penalties for cruelty to animals and to
require a child under fifteen years of age who commits
cruelty against a companion animal to undergo
psychological counseling.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
23 Persons
of authority
To
include security guards as persons of authority for
purposes of the offenses of sexual battery and
voyeurism.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
30 Traffic
camera signs
To
require any local authority that enforces any traffic
law by means of traffic law photo-monitoring devices to
erect signs on every highway or freeway that is part of
the state highway system and that enters that local
authority, informing inbound traffic that the local
authority utilizes traffic law photo-monitoring devices
to enforce traffic laws.
House
Infrastructure, Homeland Security, & Veterans
Affairs Committee
HB
56 Forcible
entry
To
clarify the rights and duties of the parties to an
action for a forcible entry and detainer at a
manufactured home park.
House
Judiciary Committee
HB
57 Sex
offenders
To
provide notice to a long-term care facility and its
residents when a registered sex offender indicates an
intent to reside or registers an address within the
facility's specified geographical notification area.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
74 Spying
To
make spying upon a minor in a state of nudity for the
purpose of sexual gratification or arousal a felony of
the third degree under all circumstances.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
83 License
plates
To
create a SORN Law license plate; to provide mandatory
prison terms and jail terms for persons convicted of a
sexually oriented or child-victim oriented offense who
are subject to a SORN Law license plate order and use a
motor vehicle without such license plates in committing
the offense, to arrive at the location where it was
committed, or to flee immediately after committing it;
and to expand the offense of "wrongful entrustment
of a motor vehicle" to apply to a person who in
specified circumstances permits a person subject to a
SORN Law license plate order to drive the offender's
motor vehicle without such license plates.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
92 Meth labs
To
require law enforcement agencies to report to the
Director of Public Safety the location of any real
property on which and the vehicle identification number
of any motor vehicle in which an illegal methamphetamine
manufacturing laboratory has been discovered, to require
the Director of Public Safety to maintain on the
Department of Public Safety web site a database of
properties on which and motor vehicles in which illegal
methamphetamine manufacturing laboratories have been
discovered, to authorize a county recorder to record an
instrument identifying any property that has been
included in that database, and to provide a means by
which an owner of property or a motor vehicle included
in that database may receive certification from the
Director of Environmental Protection that the property
or motor vehicle has been cleared of methamphetamine
residue and have the property or motor vehicle removed
from the database.
House
Infrastructure, Homeland Security, & Veterans
Affairs Committee
HB
104 License
applicants – criminal background checks
To
require initial license applicants for specified
licensed professions to obtain a criminal background
check from the bureau of criminal investigation and
identification and to require the appropriate licensing
board to consider the results of those checks in
determining a person's eligibility for licensure.
House
Judiciary Committee
HB
108 Drug
enforcement
To
require a court to impose an additional court cost of
five dollars for a moving violation to fund grants to
local drug law enforcement task forces, to create the
Drug Law Enforcement Fund in the Division of Criminal
Justice Services of the Department of Public Safety, and
to create the Drug Law Enforcement Fund Advisory
Committee to make funding recommendations to the
Division.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
111 Child
neglect – if sex offender in residence
To
expand the definition of neglected child to include a
child whose parent, guardian, or custodian knowingly
allows a sexually oriented offender or juvenile
delinquent who committed a sexually oriented offense to
reside in the same residence as that child.
House
Juvenile & Family Law Committee
HB
113 Faith-based/community
organizations – re-entry services
To
allow representatives of faith-based and other community
organizations to provide reentry services to persons in
the custody of the Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction or the Department of Youth Services.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
120 Correct
HB 241 from 126th General Assembly
To
eliminate unnecessary and inconsistent language
mistakenly retained by Sub. H.B. 241 of the 126th
General Assembly and to declare an emergency.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
130 Post-release
control, DRC omnibus legislation
To
modify sentencing procedures with respect to
post-release control and related releases from prison,
to conform the Revised Code to the decision of the Ohio
Supreme Court in State ex rel. Bray v. Russell (2000),
89 Ohio St.3d 132 by removing provisions related to bad
time, to authorize courts to participate in the
supervision of released prisoners, to provide released
prisoners with identification cards and additional
procedures for access to social services, to make other
changes relative to opportunities for prisoner training
and employment, to modify procedures for the judicial or
medical release of prisoners and intervention in lieu of
conviction, to grant the Adult Parole Authority more
flexibility in determining periods of post-release
control, to adopt other cost-control measures, to create
the Ex-offender Reentry Coalition, to modify the grounds
for disciplinary action by occupational licensing boards
against licensees charged with criminal offenses, to
provide for the indemnification of the Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction for legal costs incurred
in certain cases, to provide for legal representation of
Department employees charged with offenses in certain
cases until a grand jury has acted, to create a fund for
the deposit of money received in certain federal law
enforcement cases, to authorize the Department to enter
into contracts to provide water and sewage treatment
services, to make other changes related to the
operations of the Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction, to clarify the duties of juvenile parole
officers, to establish reimbursement rates paid by the
Department of Youth Services for outside medical
providers, to authorize the Director of Youth Services
to designate a deputy director, to modify the formula
for expending appropriations for the care and custody of
felony delinquents and the purposes for which money in
the Felony Delinquent Care and Custody Fund may be used,
to allow for unlimited reappointments of members of the
Release Authority, and to make other changes related to
the operations of the Department of Youth Services.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
132 Unlawful
property burning
To
create the offense of unlawful property burning.
House
Criminal Justice Committee
HB
139 Change
of name – prohibit sex offenders, identity thieves
To
prohibit a court from ordering a statutory change of
name for a person who has committed identity fraud or
who must register under the SORN Law for having
committed a sexually oriented offense or child-victim
oriented offense.
Introduced
March 28, 2007
Senate
Bills
SB
3 Felon –
forfeit office holding, state pension
To
provide that the privilege of holding a position of
honor, trust, or profit that is forfeited by reason of
conviction of a felony is not restored on completion of
a prison term, period of community control sanctions or
pardon or release by the Adult Parole Authority and to
provide that the office holder will forfeit the portion
of any state retirement benefit that is based on
employer contributions.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
6 Personal
information
To
allow a consumer to place a security freeze on the
consumer's credit report, to specify that Social
Security numbers are confidential, to specify that
certain personal information is not a public record, to
require a public office to redact from a document that
is otherwise a public record certain personal
information, to require a public office to redact Social
Security numbers and other confidential information from
any document that is made available online to the public
through the internet, to require the Office of Criminal
Justice Services to make state funding grants available
to local law enforcement agencies for enforcement of
identity fraud laws, to require the attorney general to
support local law enforcement agencies with the
enforcement of identity fraud laws, and to enact a
special statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions
and civil actions against identity fraud and to amend
the version of section 149.43 of the Revised Code that
is scheduled to take effect September 29, 2007, to
continue the provisions of this act on and after that
effective date.
Senate
Judiciary – Civil Justice Committee
SB
9 Felony
offenses
To
permit a prosecution for a felony sex offense or
kidnapping offense involving a victim under 13 years of
age to be commenced at any time after the commission of
the offense and to require the division of Criminal
Justice Services in the Department of Public Safety to
apply to the United States Attorney General for a
"Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde Grant."
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
10 SORN law
To
formally state the General Assembly's intentions in its
upcoming deliberations on revising Ohio's Sex Offender
Registration and Notification Law.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
17 OVI
offenses
To
increase certain penalties for repeat OVI offenders and
to remove from the motor vehicle wrongful entrustment
statute the requirement that the offender know or have
reasonable cause to believe that the person to whom the
offender provides a motor vehicle does not have a valid
driver's license in order for a violation of that
statute to occur.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
18 Offender
records
To
prohibit an offender from having a criminal record
sealed when the underlying offense is importuning, or
the underlying offense is voyeurism, public indecency,
compelling prostitution, promoting prostitution,
procuring, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles,
displaying matter harmful to juveniles, pandering
obscenity, or deception to obtain matter harmful to
juveniles when the victim of the offense is under
eighteen years of age.
Passed
by Senate, March 28, 2007
SB
21 Domestic violence
To
adopt the Uniform Interstate Enforcement of
Domestic-Violence Protection Orders Act.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
22 Sexual
predators
To
require that sexually violent predators who are released
from prison be monitored by global positioning system
devices, to require sexually violent predators to pay
the cost of monitoring by global positioning system
devices, and to authorize the civil commitment of
certain sexually violent predators.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
23 Sexual
servitude
To
prohibit involuntary servitude, sexual servitude of a
minor, and trafficking in persons for forced labor or
services and to amend the version of section 2929.18 of
the Revised Code that is scheduled to take effect on
July 1, 2007, to continue the provisions of this act on
and after that effective date.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
53 Clinical
counselors – commit/arrest persons
To
permit a licensed professional clinical counselor to
take certain persons into custody and transport those
persons to a hospital.
House
Health Committee
SB
56 SORN
license plates
To
create a SORN Law license plate; to provide mandatory
prison terms and jail terms for persons convicted of a
sexually oriented or child-victim oriented offense who
are subject to a SORN Law license plate order and use a
motor vehicle without such license plates in committing
the offense, to arrive at the location where it was
committed, or to flee immediately after committing it;
and to expand the offense of "wrongful entrustment
of a motor vehicle" to apply to a person who in
specified circumstances permits a person subject to a
SORN Law license plate order to drive the offender's
motor vehicle without such license plates.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
70 Parole
board
To
limit a member of the Ohio Parole Board who is not a
victim representative to one six-year term.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
71 Corporal
punishment of children – restrict
To
prohibit the use of corporal punishment on a child who
is less than three or more than twelve years of age or
by hitting a child about the face or head or with any
object other than a bare hand and to prohibit corporal
punishment in schools.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
73 Crack/powdered
cocaine-no legal distinction
To
eliminate the distinction between powdered cocaine and
crack cocaine in the Drug Abuse Law and to amend the
version of section 2925.03 of the Revised Code that
takes effect on July 1, 2007, to maintain the provisions
of this act on and after that date.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
91 Road rage
To
provide that if a person is convicted of committing a
state motor vehicle moving violation immediately after
initiating a road rage incident, the moving violation is
at least a fourth-degree misdemeanor and the court must
fine the person at least $100 and require the person to
attend a road rage abatement seminar, and to require
remedial driving courses to be taken in person.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
97 SORN law
To
modify the penalties for violations of the Sexual
Offender Registration and Notification Law, to require
the inclusion of specified information on the statewide
and county sheriffs' internet sex offender and
child-victim offender databases, and to declare an
emergency.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
100 Judicial
attacks
To
increase the penalties for certain offenses when a judge
or magistrate is the victim, to prohibit a person from
threatening a judge or magistrate, and to make the
killing of a judge or magistrate an aggravating
circumstance for the imposition of the death penalty for
aggravated murder.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB
108 Judicial
release
To
prohibit a court from granting judicial release to any
person serving a prison term for a criminal offense
committed while the person held public office.
Senate
Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
Updated:
April 5, 2007
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