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Subcommittee backs raising age for 'homicide by child abuse' to 18
Summary
The subcommittee voted to advance a bill to expand the state's homicide-by-child-abuse law from victims under 11 to victims under 18, citing prosecutorial difficulties proving malice in prolonged-abuse cases involving older children and infants with severe neglect.
A Senate Judiciary subcommittee voted to report favorably a bill that would raise the age threshold for the offense of homicide by child abuse from 11 years old to under 18, allowing prosecutors to charge caretakers for deaths caused by acts or omissions against older children that currently fall outside the existing statutory age range.
Madison, staff to the committee, said the measure would allow a person to be charged with homicide by child abuse if the deceased child is under 18 and that the bill passed the Senate last year 43–0 before stalling in the House.
Solicitors who prosecuted similar cases testified they face practical obstacles under the current scheme. Solicitor David Stumbo described a case involving a 12-year-old girl whose prolonged medical neglect produced severe injuries; he said the prosecution faced difficulty proving malice necessary for a murder charge and that the current statute prevented charging homicide by child abuse because the child had passed the 11‑year threshold. “If 405 were passed and it raised the age to 18, it would protect victims like Ashanta Glenn, and we’d be able to go after the caretakers,” Stumbo said.
Solicitor Barnett and others provided additional case examples in which prosecutors sought stronger statutory tools to match the facts of prolonged neglect or abuse where malice is difficult to establish at a single point in time. Supporters argued the change would give juries a statutory vehicle tailored to deaths resulting from ongoing abuse or neglect rather than requiring proof of a discrete malicious act.
The subcommittee voted by voice to report the bill favorably to the full committee.
Votes at a glance: Bill 405 (raise victim-age threshold to under 18) was reported favorably by the subcommittee.
