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Committee approves cap on consecutive misdemeanor jail time for certain offenses
Summary
House Bill 1014 would set aggregate caps on executed sentences for consecutive misdemeanors (1 year for C, 2 years for consecutive B, 3 years for consecutive A). The committee adopted an exclusion list by amendment and advanced the bill unanimously.
House Bill 1014 would set a cap on the total executed time a court may impose for consecutive misdemeanor convictions: one year total for class C misdemeanors, two years for consecutive class B misdemeanors and three years for consecutive class A misdemeanors, according to the bill sponsor.
Representative Zimmerman cited a court of appeals opinion that produced a 12‑year executed sentence for a defendant convicted of a class A misdemeanor neglect of a vertebrate animal; the bill seeks to create a statutory cap to prevent unusually long aggregate misdemeanor executions. The sponsor said the change is intended for offenses where long incarceration is not typical or necessary.
The committee considered amendment 3, which creates an excluded list of misdemeanors that would not be subject to the cap. The sponsor added three specific exclusions—domestic violence, invasion of privacy, and resisting law enforcement—saying these crimes are sufficiently serious that courts could still stack sentences in those cases. The committee adopted the amendment by consent and advanced the bill on a 9–0 vote.
