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Senate Judiciary reviews H.5 to expand hearsay exception and create image-based extortion offense
Summary
At a March 17 Senate Judiciary meeting, Office of Legislative Counsel Michelle Childs walked members through H.5: it would amend Rule 804(a) to expand a hearsay exception (raising the age threshold to under 16) and add/adjust voyeurism, nonconsensual-image dissemination, a new image-extortion crime, civil remedies and limited reporting immunity; committee requested more witnesses.
Michelle Childs, Office of Legislative Counsel, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 17 that H.5 would amend Rule 804(a) of the rules of evidence and several Title 13 criminal provisions to address nonconsensual image harms and related evidence rules.
Childs said the bill’s single, narrow change to the hearsay rule is an age adjustment: "under 16 years of age." She explained existing safeguards remain in place, including that the child must be available to testify and the timing and circumstances of the statement must provide "substantial indicia of trust." The committee chair pressed whether a defense could introduce an out-of-court statement from someone under 16 and whether one victim’s statement could be used against another; Childs and members clarified that other protections in Rule 804(a) would still apply and recommended practitioners provide concrete examples.
On substantive crimes, Childs reviewed revisions to the voyeurism statute that…
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