Legislation
Last Updated: March 19, 2009
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OPD Legislative Update
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 128th
General Assembly.
House Bills
HB 1 Operating
budget, fiscal years 2010-2011
State operating budget for fiscal years 2010–2011.
Conference Committee; weekly interim budgets adopted
HB 10 Protection
orders
To allow a court to issue a civil protection order to a child
who has had or has a dating relationship with the respondent if
certain offenses are alleged and to include foster parents under
the scope of the domestic violence laws.
Senate Judiciary – Civil Justice Committee
HB 11 Sex offender
residency
To provide that any person required to register under Ohio's Sex
Offender Registration and Notification Law who establishes or
occupies residential premises within one thousand feet of any
school premises, recreation center, playground, or other place
where it is reasonable to expect children to frequent or linger
is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree and to require a
court to order a violator to vacate the premises as part of any
injunctive relief granted for the violation.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 13 Prohibit Tier
III offenders from school property
To prohibit Tier III sex offender/child victim offenders who
have committed specified offenses against a victim under 16
years of age from knowingly being present on school premises or
preschool or child day-care center premises.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 17 Operating
motorcycles without a license
To clarify the penalties for operating a motorcycle without
having either a motorcycle endorsement or the proper restricted
license.
House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee
HB 23 Financial
responsibility
To increase the minimum amounts required for valid proof of
financial responsibility.
House Insurance Committee
HB 29 Prohibit
sexual conduct with human corpse
To prohibit engaging in sexual conduct with a human corpse.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 45 Headlights on
when windshield wipers in use
To require the headlights of a vehicle to be lighted when its
windshield wipers are in use.
House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee
HB 55 Cruelty to
animals, pets in protection orders
To revise the penalties and sentencing provisions regarding
violations of the cruelty to animals statutes and to include the
protection of companion animals in temporary protection orders,
domestic violence protection orders, anti-stalking protection
orders, and related protection orders.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 70 Cruelty to
companion animal
To increase the penalty for violation of the prohibition against
cruel treatment of a companion animal by the animal's custodian
or caretaker to a felony of the fifth degree.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 83 Reporting
assaults in public schools
Tto provide for the reporting of assaults in public schools to
school administrators and law enforcement authorities.
House Education Committee
HB 85 Prohibit
possession of firearm if under 21
To prohibit any person under twenty-one years of age from
possessing a firearm, subject to specified exceptions for lawful
hunting, sporting, or educational purposes and for law
enforcement officers; to expand the offense of failure to secure
dangerous ordnance so that it also prohibits a failure to secure
a firearm and increase the penalty for the offense; and to
declare an emergency.
House Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee
HB 89 Penalties for
killing judges
To provide that the purposeful killing of a judge or magistrate
in specified circumstances is aggravated murder; to increase the
penalty for felonious assault, aggravated assault, and assault
in specified circumstances when the victim is a judge, a
magistrate, or a law enforcement officer, to change the
circumstances in which the penalty for those offenses is
increased when the victim is a BCII investigator, and to remove
the increased penalty for those offenses when the victim is a
peace officer; to increase the penalty for assault when the
offense is committed in a courthouse in specified circumstances
and to change the circumstances in which the penalty for that
offense is increased when the victim is a children services
worker; to increase the penalty for aggravated menacing in
specified circumstances when the victim is a law enforcement
officer, judge, or magistrate and to change the circumstances in
which the penalty for that offense is increased when the victim
is a children services worker; to expand intimidation to also
prohibit attempting to intimidate a public servant, party
official, attorney, or witness by making an unlawful threat of
harm to an unborn of that person; to expand retaliation to also
prohibit using force against or making an unlawful threat to
harm an unborn of a public servant, party official, attorney, or
witness and to modify the culpable mental state for and other
elements of that offense; and to make the killing of a judge or
magistrate in specified circumstances an aggravating
circumstance for the imposition of the death penalty for
aggravated murder.
House Judiciary Committee
HB 95 Prohibit name
change
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.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
HB 98 Notify
long-term care facilities of sex offender
To provide notice to a long-term care facility when a Tier III
or similar category sex offender/child-victim offender indicates
an intent to reside in the facility or registers an address
within the specified geographical notification area including
the facility.
House Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee
HB 99 DNA testing,
evidence retention, eyewitness ID reform
Relative to the expansion of DNA testing for certain convicted
felons, the elimination of the DNA testing mechanism for felons
who pleaded guilty or no contest to the offense, the collection
of DNA specimens from all persons eighteen years of age or older
who are arrested for a felony offense, the preservation and
accessibility of biological evidence in a criminal or
delinquency investigation or proceeding, the improvement of
eyewitness identification procedures, and the electronic or
audio recording of custodial interrogations.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 103 Threatening,
harming, killing judge
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.
Reported by House Judiciary Committee, June 24, 2009
HB 108 Cockfighting
To increase the penalty for cockfighting.
Reported by House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee,
June 10, 2009
HB 109 Municipal
OVI
to require the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to disqualify the
holder of a commercial driver's license from operating a
commercial motor vehicle upon a municipal OVI conviction.
House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee
HB 112 GPS
monitoring of protection orders
To authorize a court that issues a temporary protection order in
specified criminal cases to require the alleged offender, as a
condition of pretrial release, to be monitored by a global
positioning system device at the alleged offender's expense.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 121 Driving on
expired license
To permit a person who is issued a ticket for operating a motor
vehicle other than a commercial motor vehicle with an expired
driver's or commercial driver's license to be issued a seven-day
field driving permit.
Introduced April 2, 2009
HB 127 Professional
licensing laws
To revise the laws governing issuance of certain professional
licenses.
House
State
Government Committee
HB 128 Assured
clear distance/failure to yield – increased penalty
To provide for increased penalties when a person violates the
motor vehicle traffic law assured clear distance ahead provision
or commits a failure to yield the right-of-way offense that
results in serious physical harm or death to another person.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 129 Concealed
carry handgun law – revise
To authorize a person to carry a concealed handgun without
obtaining a license to the same extent as if the person had
obtained such a license, except on liquor permit premises, if
the person qualifies for a concealed carry license and is
legally permitted to purchase a handgun; to remove the
requirements that a concealed carry licensee must be carrying
the license in order to carry a concealed handgun, must inform
approaching law enforcement officers that the person has a
license and is carrying the handgun when the person is carrying
a concealed handgun, and must submit a new or renewed competency
certification when renewing the license; to eliminate as
premises in which a concealed carry licensee may not carry a
concealed handgun public or private institutions of higher
education, places of worship, day-care centers and homes, and
government buildings other than schools, courthouses, law
enforcement offices, and correctional facilities; to replace the
prohibitions that apply only to a concealed carry licensee who
is carrying a handgun in a motor vehicle with a prohibition
against a licensee who is in a motor vehicle that is stopped by
a law enforcement officer knowingly menacing or threatening an
officer with a loaded handgun or knowingly pointing a loaded
handgun at an officer; to remove the "in plain sight or secure
encasement" criterion that a concealed carry licensee must
satisfy to legally possess a handgun in a motor vehicle; and to
require a sheriff who issues a renewed concealed carry license
to return the expired license to the licensee or destroy it.
House Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee
HB 130 Prohibit
cell phone usage while driving if under 17 years
To prohibit a person who is less than 17 years of age from
talking or text messaging on a mobile communication device while
driving.
House Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee
HB 132 Prohibit
minors exchanging photos of nude minors by cell phones
To prohibit a minor, by use of a telecommunications device, from
recklessly creating, receiving, exchanging, sending, or
possessing a photograph or other material showing a minor in a
state of nudity.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 138 Inmate
accounts over $1,000
To authorize an inmate of a state correctional facility who has
more than $100 in a personal account to request the investment
of the amount over $100 in any series of United States savings
bonds or in certificates of deposit.
House
State
Government Committee
HB 143 Traffic law
photo-monitoring devices – prohibit
To prohibit the use by the State Highway Patrol, counties, and
townships of traffic law photo-monitoring devices.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 154 Fleeing
police
To prohibit a person who is not operating a motor vehicle from
fleeing from a law enforcement officer who gives a lawful order
to stop and to increase the minimum penalty for fleeing and
eluding a police officer in a motor vehicle after receiving a
visible or audible signal to stop.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 162 Increase
freeway speed limit for passenger vehicles/buses
To increase the speed limit for passenger vehicles and
commercial buses from 65 to 70 miles per hour on certain
interstate freeways.
House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee
HB 164 School
districts employ law enforcement officers
To authorize a board of education of a school district or
governing board of an educational service center to employ
public high school law enforcement officers, to provide that
public high school law enforcement officers are members of the
Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, to prohibit the
impersonation of a public high school law enforcement officer,
and to specify the powers of arrest and citation of public high
school law enforcement officers.
House Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee
HB 167 Domestic
violence victims rights
To prohibit an employer or a landlord from discriminating
against a victim of domestic violence, to require a metropolitan
housing authority to move a victim of domestic violence if
another unit is available, to prohibit charging a fee when law
enforcement officers assist a victim of domestic violence, and
to allow a victim of domestic violence (1) to take unpaid leave
for purposes relating to the incident of domestic violence, (2)
to change or have changed the locks to the tenant's dwelling
unit, and (3) to terminate a rental agreement.
House Housing & Urban Revitalization Committee
HB 175 Humane
society agent training
To require a person to file proof of successful completion of
training with the county recorder prior to being appointed as a
humane society agent and to require the revocation of an
appointment under certain circumstances.
House Local Government / Public Administration Committee
HB 180
Assault/aggravated menacing in courthouse
To make an assault or aggravated menacing committed in a
courthouse a felony of the fifth degree.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 182
Assault/manslaughter of child less than 5 years old
To require a definite term of imprisonment of 5 to 10 years for
an offender convicted of felonious assault or endangering
children and a specification that the victim was less than 5
years of age and suffered substantial permanent injury or for an
offender convicted of voluntary manslaughter, involuntary
manslaughter, or reckless homicide and a specification that the
victim was less than five years of age.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 191 Street
racing
To increase the penalties for street racing and to create the
offense of "street racing manslaughter."
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 203 Concealed
handgun ok in liquor-selling restaurant
To allow a concealed carry licensee who is not consuming liquor
and is not under the influence to carry a concealed handgun in a
retail food establishment or food service operation with any
class liquor permit issued for the location.
House Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee
HB 213 Spiritual
treatment exemptions from criminal prosecution
To eliminate the exemption from the tuberculosis treatment
requirements for minors of parents who rely exclusively on
spiritual treatment through prayer, to eliminate the exemption
in Chapter 2151. of the Revised Code from criminal prosecution
for persons who fail to provide medical treatment for children
because of religious beliefs, to similarly limit the exemption
for treatment of mentally retarded and developmentally disabled
persons, and to eliminate the exception to endangering children
for persons who treat a child's physical or mental illness
through prayer alone in accordance with the tenets of a
recognized religious body.
House Health Committee
HB 225 Presentence
investigation report
To eliminate the requirement for certain felons that a
presentence investigation report be prepared prior to an
offender's placement under a community control sanction.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 233 Criminal
Justice Reform Commission
To create the Criminal Justice Reform Commission.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 235 Juvenile
justice reform bill
Regarding the transfer for criminal prosecution of an alleged
delinquent child, the eligibility for imposition of a serious
youthful offender dispositional sentence, the commitment of a
delinquent child to the Department of Youth Services based on a
firearm specification or certain aggravated vehicular homicide
specifications, and the granting of a judicial release to a
delinquent child.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 242 Internet
database of felons
To require the Superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal
Identification and Investigation to establish and operate on the
internet a database that contains information for every offender
who within the prior 10 years or at any time in the future was
or is convicted of or pleaded or pleads guilty to committing a
felony offense against a person under eighteen years of age.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 243 Intimidation
To specify that the offense of intimidation of an attorney,
victim, or witness in a criminal case also applies to
delinquency cases and to any attempt to influence, intimidate,
or hinder a witness to a criminal or delinquent act in the
discharge of the duty of a witness, and to prohibit any attempt
to influence, intimidate, or hinder a victim, witness, or
attorney through any act of unlawful conduct.
House Criminal Justice Committee
HB 248 Murder of
victim under 13
To provide a prison term of 20 years to life for a person
convicted of murder when the victim is less than 13 years of age
and the offender is not subject to sentencing under the Sexually
Violent Predator Sentencing Law.
Introduced July 1, 2009
Senate Bills
SB 21 Tax credit
To create a tax credit for the employment of individuals who
have previously been convicted of felonies.
Senate Ways & Means & Economic Development Committee
SB 22 Sentencing
reforms
To increase from $500 to $750 the threshold amount that is used
in determining increased penalties for theft-related offenses;
to provide that if the offense of "nonsupport of dependents" is
based on an abandonment of or failure to support a child or a
person to whom a court order requires support and is a felony
the court must sentence the offender to one or more community
control sanctions and that any residential sanction so imposed
generally must require that the offender complete a community
corrections program; to remove Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction supervision of a releasee from the definition of
"detention" and specify the method of sanctioning a person under
Department supervision who fails to comply in a specified manner
with that supervision; and to increase from one day to five days
the credit a prisoner in a state correctional institution may
earn as a monthly deduction from the prisoner's prison term for
productive participation in specified prison programs, remove
sex offender treatment programs from the type of programs for
which a prisoner can earn the credit, and prohibit granting the
credit to a person serving a sentence for a sexually oriented
offense.
Reported by Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee, June
18, 2009
SB 30 Arson
registry
To establish a registry for arson offenders.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 33 Re-entry
plans
To require the Bureau of Examination and Classification within
the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to develop a
re-entry plan for each inmate of a correctional institution.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 35 Ohio police
enforce immigration laws
To direct the Attorney General to pursue a memorandum of
agreement that permits the enforcement of federal immigration
laws in this state by law enforcement officers.
Senate State & Local Government & Veterans Affairs Committee
SB 42 Make
residency restrictions retroactive
To specify that the restriction against offenders convicted of a
sexually oriented offense or child-victim oriented offense
establishing or occupying a residence near school, preschool, or
child day-care premises generally applies regardless of when the
offense was committed or the offender began living in the
residence, to provide an exemption from the ban for offenders
who occupy residential premises they or their spouse own at the
time of occupancy and also owned prior to the ban's effective
date, and to specify that a registration requirement for
children adjudicated delinquent for a sexually oriented offense
and classified a juvenile offender registrant applies regardless
of when the offense was committed.
House Judiciary Committee
-
OPD opposition testimony to Senate Committee
SB 49 Injure or
kill child with firearm
To require the imposition of a ten-year prison term upon a
person who discharges a firearm while committing an offense and
causes injury or death to a child.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 56 Leaving child
unattended in vehicle
To prohibit a person from negligently leaving a child who is
less than five years of age unattended in an automobile.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 58 Prohibit
collecting bodily substances
To prohibit a person from collecting any bodily substance of
another person without privilege to do so.
House Criminal Justice Committee
SB 65 Increase
traffic law penalties, serious harm or death
To provide for increased penalties when a person violates the
motor vehicle traffic law assured clear distance ahead provision
or commits a failure to yield the right-of-way offense that
results in serious physical harm or death to another person.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 67 GPS
monitoring, civil commitment sexually violent 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 74 Study drug
sentencing
To require the State Criminal Sentencing Commission to study
sentencing for drug-related offenses and to report its findings
and recommendations to the General Assembly.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 77 DNA testing,
evidence preservation, eyewitness ID, interrogation recording
Relative to the expansion of DNA testing for certain convicted
felons, the elimination of the DNA testing mechanism for felons
who pleaded guilty or no contest to the offense, the collection
of DNA specimens from all persons eighteen years of age or older
who are arrested for a felony offense, the sealing of the
official records of persons who have their convictions vacated
and set aside due to DNA testing, the preservation and
accessibility of biological evidence in a criminal or
delinquency investigation or proceeding, the improvement of
eyewitness identification procedures, and the electronic
recording of custodial interrogations.
House Criminal Justice Committee
SB 92 Parole Board
term limits
To limit a member of the Ohio Parole Board who is not a victim
representative to two six-year terms.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 103 Minors
exchanging photos of nude minors
To prohibit a minor, by use of a telecommunications device, from
recklessly creating, receiving, exchanging, sending, or
possessing a photograph or other material showing a minor in a
state of nudity.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 105 Prohibit
broadcasting of 911 calls
To prohibit broadcasting an actual 9-1-1 call that has been made
available as a public record and to prescribe a penalty.
Senate State & Local Government & Veterans Affairs Committee
SB 107 Racial
profiling
To specify that it is an unlawful discriminatory practice that
is within the jurisdiction of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission
for any law enforcement agency or officer in Ohio to engage in
racial profiling; to require the Commission to compile data from
law enforcement agencies regarding routine or spontaneous
investigatory activities of the agencies' officers and analyze
the data for significantly significant disparities related to
the race, ethnicity, national origin, or gender of the subjects
of the activities; to provide for Commission access to LEADS to
obtain the data and require law enforcement agencies to enter
the data on LEADS; and to require law enforcement agencies to
maintain a policy designed to eliminate racial profiling by the
agency and its officers and to cease existing practices by the
agency and its officers that permit or encourage racial
profiling.
Senate Judiciary – Civil Justice Committee
SB 112 Ethnic
intimidation
To include in the offense of ethnic intimidation the commission
of specified offenses by reason of disability of the victim.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 122 High school
law enforcement officers
To authorize a board of education of a school district or
governing board of an educational service center to employ
public high school law enforcement officers, to provide that
public high school law enforcement officers are members of the
Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, to prohibit the
impersonation of a public high school law enforcement officer,
and to specify the powers of arrest and citation of public high
school law enforcement officers.
Senate Education Committee
SB 126 School
bullying
To prohibit school administrators from knowingly failing to
report to law enforcement authorities menacing by stalking or
telecommunications harassment that occurs on school grounds, to
require a board of education to adopt a policy that prohibits
bullying by electronic means, to require a school district's
harassment policy to address acts that occur off school property
but materially disrupt the educational environment of the
school, to require a school district annually to provide
training on the district's bullying policy for district
employees and volunteers, and to require a school district to
notify parents or guardians of students if the annual training
is not completed.
Senate Education Committee
SB 130 Sex offender
notification to long-term care facilities
To require a long-term care facility to notify its residents
when a sex offender or person who was imprisoned out-of-state
for a felony offense is admitted to the facility and to
establish immunity for employees of such facilities who report
the facility's failure to comply with the notification
requirements.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 139 Speeding in
school zone
To double the fine for a speeding violation that occurs in a
school zone during restricted hours.
Senate Highways & Transportation Committee
SB 140 Drug
offender treatment
Relative to treatment for certain drug offenders and to make an
appropriation.
Senate Finance & Financial Institutions Committee
SB 142 Non-Ohio
facilities for delinquent children
To require that any privately run non-Ohio school, camp,
institution, or other facility to which Ohio delinquent children
are committed comply with the same standards that are applicable
to in-state schools, camps, institutions, or other facilities.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 143 Halfway
house notify APA
To require an operator of a halfway house to notify the adult
parole authority within twenty-four hours after a resident
absconds from the halfway house.
Senate Judiciary – Criminal Justice Committee
SB 145 Tax credit
for wages paid to felons
To create a tax credit for wages paid by employers to employees
who have been convicted of felonies.
Senate Ways & Means Committee
SB 150 Sheriff take
into custody illegal aliens
To provide that a board of county commissioners may direct a
sheriff to take custody of persons who are being detained for
deportation or who are charged with civil violations of
immigration law and to expressly authorize state and local
employees and county sheriffs to render assistance to federal
immigration officials in the investigation and enforcement of
federal immigration law.
Senate State & Local Government & Veterans Affairs Committee
Updated July 7, 2009
Legislative Links
128th General Assembly Online
Thomas on the Internet Legislative
Information
External website links serve as a source
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"Where you
find the laws most numerous, there you will find also
the greatest injustice."
Arcesilaus
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