Senate debate centers on amended bill to target buyers, preserve defenses for trafficking victims

Senator Kimbrell moved a major floor amendment to Senate Bill 235 on the Senate floor, saying the measure would shift the focus of state law toward penalizing people who buy sex and those who traffic people while preserving defenses for victims who acted under duress.

The amendment, presented as a working document for S.235, would (as described on the floor) revert the statutory treatment of people held out for hire toward the existing code, add explicit affirmative defenses for persons who acted under coercion or were trafficking victims, exempt minors from prosecution, and create a graduated penalty schedule that makes earlier offenses misdemeanors and escalates to felony-level penalties for repeated purchasers or traffickers. Sponsor Senator Kimbrell said the intent is "to be tougher on the people who are buying people like that" and to "go after demand for prostitution in the state." He told the chamber, "the vast majority of those individuals being offered for [sex] in this state... is doing so under coercion and duress."

Senator…