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Committee advances bill tightening kidnapping defenses and expanding protections for child witnesses
Summary
SB203, sponsored by Sen. Figures, clarifies defenses to first-degree kidnapping, creates custodial-misconduct protections for inpatient facilities and expands when child statements may be played to juries; the Judiciary committee gave the bill a favorable report with previous roll.
Senator Figures presented SB203 to the Judiciary committee as a package of changes aimed at closing loopholes in crimes-against-children statutes and improving evidence available to juries.
Patricia Melber, who spoke for the bill, said it eliminates a defense in first-degree kidnapping cases where a victim is released in a safe place before apprehension, because prosecutors in Jefferson County had been unable to…
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