Get AI Briefings, Transcripts & Alerts on Local & National Government Meetings — Forever.
Committee approves bill to expand forensic exams and reimbursements for strangulation and domestic-violence victims
Loading...
Summary
HB 998 expands the definition of forensic medical examinations to include nonfatal strangulation and creates a simplified reimbursement path for those exams; committee adopted amendments and reported the bill favorably with a six-month implementation runway for protocols and standards.
Representative Freeman presented HB 9 98 to add domestic-violence-related forensic medical exams (including nonfatal strangulation) to the list of examinations eligible for streamlined victim compensation reimbursements and to create a standardized statewide protocol. Mariah Wineski (executive director, Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence) said the change would improve evidence collection and prosecution by enabling examiners to document head and neck injuries, take photographs, and order scans when needed. She noted that strangulation is a documented risk factor for later domestic homicides and said better forensic exams would "lead to more evidence gathered for prosecution of strangulation crimes."
Mary Claire Landry (New Orleans Family Justice Center) testified that the center has performed forensic exams for strangulation victims since 2017 and that treating these exams as forensic (rather than ordinary medical) exams allows for evidence collection, photographic documentation and DNA collection; she noted current reimbursement rates are lower for domestic-violence medical exams and that parity with sexual-assault forensic exam reimbursement would help sustain clinic operations and SANE staffing.
Committee staff explained a set of technical and substantive amendments (removing some cross-references to human trafficking and setting an implementation timeline). The amendment also places responsibility on the attorney general—s office and relevant state entities to develop a standardized forensic medical-examination protocol within six months of the act—s effective date. Representative Freeman asked the committee to report the bill favorably; the committee did so without recorded objection.
Practical effect: If enacted, the bill will clarify that forensic exams for domestic violence and strangulation are eligible for the same standardized reimbursement pathway used for sexual-assault forensic exams, expand training and kit availability, and give prosecutors a clearer evidentiary record for strangulation cases.
