The judiciary committee meeting has until 5 p.m. today to act on any bills. Included on the committee’s lenthy agenda is a bill about death penalty, a bill about sexting and at least two bills about firearms.
Today’s meeting began at 10 a.m., but committee members decided to caucus before voting on a variety of issues and have been behind closed doors all morning.
The death penalty bill would shorten the post-conviction process in death penalty cases. It would also allocate money for more training for prosecutors and public defenders, would require that confessions be videotaped and includes a provision that would allow victims to address a jury before, rather than after, a verdict is determined.
Unlike a bill that lawmakers considered last year, this year’s bill would not repeal the death penalty.
The sexting bill would lessen the penalty for sexting between two consenting minors. Currently, it is a felony for children under 18 to send or receive text messages that include nude or sexual images, a practice known as sexting. If found guilty, the minor would be required to register as a sex offender.
The bill, proposed by Rep. Rosa Rebimbas, R-Naugatuck, would make sexting between two consenting minors a Class A misdemeanor. Doing so would give the courts more options, Rebimbas says, keeping consenting children from having felony charges on their records.
One firearms bills would allow those who are prohibited under federal law from possessing or receiving firearms because of their mental or developmental disabilities to petition the probate court to get their rights restored.
Another firearms bill would make changes to firearms regulations. For example, the bill would require someone purchasing a firearm to notify the Department of Public Safety within 24 hours, and it would prohibit an alien without legal permanent resident status from purchasing a firearm. It would also change the blood alcohol limit for the offense of carrying a firearm while intoxicated to achieve parity with the level of offense of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Currently, the blood alcohol limit for carrying a firearm while intoxicated is 0.1 percent. The new limit would be 0.08.