Legislature(2011 - 2012)CAPITOL 120
02/16/2011 01:00 PM House JUDICIARY
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB116 | |
| HB8 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 8 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 116 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
HB 116 - CORRECT SPELLING OF LORAZEPAM
1:07:14 PM
CHAIR GATTO announced that the first order of business would be
HOUSE BILL NO. 116, "An Act making a corrective amendment to the
Alaska Statutes as recommended by the revisor of statutes by
correcting the spelling of 'lorazepam' and providing an
applicability section; and providing for an effective date."
1:07:59 PM
GERALD LUCKHAUPT, Assistant Revisor, Legal Services, Legislative
Legal and Research Services, Legislative Affairs Agency (LAA),
explained that HB 116 is a special revisor's legislation. There
is another revisor's legislation, which includes all the other
changes that have become outmoded in statute. Traditionally,
the revisor hasn't placed criminal matters in the revisor's
legislation because it can have an effect on past convictions.
Therefore, HB 116 was introduced to correct the misspelling of
lorazepam that occurred in 1982 and remained unnoticed until
last year. Another reason for HB 116 is to have an
applicability section that specifies this is merely a technical
change that doesn't change the law. Therefore, HB 116 makes it
clear that past [charges and convictions] involving "lorazepan"
were meant to refer to "lorazepam". In response to Chair Gatto,
Mr. Luckhaupt acknowledged that one could argue he/she is
innocent [because the individual's charges involved "lorazepan,"
which doesn't exist]. However, that's why the applicability
section of HB 116 is necessary; to specify that the misspelling
was a clerical mistake. He offered his belief that there won't
be any problem with past convictions or current prosecutions as
the notion of strict code pleading went away some 50 years ago.
Still, if there is a problem, the applicability clause attempts
to fix it as best it can. Department of Law staff members agree
that HB 116 is the best way to fix the problem. In response to
Chair Gatto, Mr. Luckhaupt relayed that the misspelling was
brought up last year with a prosecution in Fairbanks. He
reviewed the case in which the misspelling of lorazepam, a form
of valium, was discovered. He noted that this fix was added to
legislation at the end of last year, but the legislation didn't
get through the process.
1:11:48 PM
REPRESENTATIVE PRUITT asked whether the misspelling affected the
prosecution of the Fairbanks case in which it was discovered.
MR. LUCKHAUPT replied no; rather there was recognition that it
was merely a misspelling in statute. In further response to
Representative Pruitt, Mr. Luckhaupt surmised that the court
recognized what the legislature intended to do, which wasn't to
criminalize the possession of something that didn't exist.
1:13:18 PM
REPRESENTATIVE THOMPSON related his understanding that there are
other misspellings in the same section. For instance, in AS
11.71.140(b)(1)(O) "oxymorphine" should be "oxymorphone" and in
AS 11.71.170(f)(3)"propoxphene" should be "propoxyphene". He
asked whether those misspellings could be addressed with HB 116.
MR. LUCKHAUPT expressed the need to have time to research
whether those are actual misspellings. He informed the
committee that he went through a process with lorazepam to
ensure that the misspelling wasn't merely a clerical error in
the statute books, but rather something the legislature did.
The misspelling of "propoxyphene" is simply a misspelling by
Lexis Nexus in the statute books because the legislature
actually passed the correct spelling, and therefore it wouldn't
require a legislative change. However, "oxymorphine" is listed
by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as
"oxymorphine" and "oxymorphone." Therefore, he said he was
hesitant to recommend a change until he has had time to research
it further.
1:15:31 PM
CHAIR GATTO, after ascertaining that no one else wished to
testify, closed public testimony.
1:16:15 PM
REPRESENTATIVE THOMPSON moved to report HB 116 out of committee
with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal
notes. There being no objection, HB 116 was reported from the
House Judiciary Standing Committee.