Legislature(2005 - 2006)BELTZ 211
03/01/2005 03:30 PM Senate STATE AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB101 | |
| SB20 | |
| SB75 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SB 20 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| = | SB 101 | ||
| = | SB 75 | ||
SB 20-OFFENSES AGAINST UNBORN CHILDREN
CHAIR GENE THERRIAULT announced SB 20 to be up for consideration
and asked Senator Dyson to come forward.
SENATOR FRED DYSON, prime sponsor, said he is particularly
pleased with this piece of legislation because it reflects what
he has learned from similar legislation he worked on in previous
years.
In April 2004, Congress passed the Unborn Victims of Violence
Act and SB 20 is equivalent to that federal legislation. Because
the federal legislation comes into force only when an unborn
child is harmed or killed during commission of a federal crime,
it doesn't impact on state law. States are neither forced nor
precluded from compliance. SB 20 addresses that and accords the
same level of protection to an unborn child when violent acts
are prosecuted under state law.
CHAIR THERRIAULT noted that his comments were addressed to the
proposed \F version committee substitute (CS) and asked for a
motion to adopt that as the working document.
SENATOR THOMAS WAGONER so moved. There being no objection, \F
version CSSB 20 was the working document.
SENATOR DYSON explained that SB 20 amends the state criminal
code to include not just the killing of an unborn child, but for
assault and injury to an unborn child as well. He then noted he
had an amendment for the committee to consider.
3:50:02 PM
SENATOR DYSON stated this legislation would have no implication
on abortion, the option of abortion, regular medical
proceedings, or anything a woman might do to herself while she
is pregnant. He said:
What if a woman is drinking during vulnerable periods
of the pregnancy and is causing soft brain injuries?
And we've carefully excluded those kind of things from
this criminal law section. ... It is my intent to just
afford protection of an unborn child on a level that
is reasonably equivalent to that protection we afford
live born Homo sapiens.
SENATOR DYSON reported that 30 other states have enacted similar
legislation. Some 16 or 17 states have enacted legislation to
provide protection during any period of gestation and 13 or 14
have passed legislation with old-fashioned language.
3:52:16 PM
SENATOR KIM ELTON referenced page 2, lines 5,6 and 7 and said he
didn't understand the language and asked whether it is defined
somewhere.
SENATOR DYSON said he thought so, but that is fairly typical
language.
WES KELLER, staff to Senator Dyson, said the drafter simply
transferred the language, "extreme indifference to the value of
human life" from the first and second-degree murder statutes and
the word, "knowingly" is found throughout case law and is
specifically defined in statute.
3:54:10 PM
SENATOR ELTON referenced page 2, lines 16-19 that addresses
manslaughter of an unborn child and noted that meeting one or
all of the criteria, "intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly"
could trigger manslaughter charges. He cited an example of
someone driving too fast for conditions and getting into an
accident that results in the death of an unborn child. In that
circumstance he questioned whether the driver would be charged
with manslaughter.
SENATOR DYSON suggested the charge would be negligence that
might rise to the level of criminal negligence. Transferable
intent is a concept in law that holds the person who committed a
crime responsible for harming an innocent bystander.
3:56:30 PM
SENATOR ELTON referenced exceptions listed on page 3 and noted
that if a pregnant woman harms herself and/or her unborn child
she wouldn't be charged, but another driver that harms the
woman's unborn child could be charged.
SENATOR DYSON responded it isn't his intention to charge a woman
for something she does herself.
3:58:22 PM
SENATOR ELTON commented that this seems to set a disparate
sentence requirement. The anomaly occurs because the pregnant
woman might know she could harm her unborn child while another
person might not even know the woman is pregnant.
CHAIR THERRIAULT made the point that if a pregnant woman
attempts to commit suicide and harms her unborn child in the
process, she wouldn't be charged.
SENATOR DYSON said that's correct under this bill.
SENATOR ELTON referenced the analysis in the zero fiscal note
from the Department of Corrections and asked the sponsor whether
he anticipated a certain caseload.
SENATOR DYSON surmised it would be less than ten cases per year.
4:01:36 PM
SENATOR ELTON referenced the analysis in the DOA indeterminate
fiscal note and asked if it's justified because it's not clear
that charges could be brought for cases of inadequate prenatal
care.
SENATOR DYSON replied his assumption is that language on page 3,
lines 28-29 would cover actions of both omission and commission.
CHAIR THERRIAULT referenced page 3, lines 3-19 and asked for an
explanation of the proposed change.
4:04:09 PM
MR. KELLER explained they compared assault language for a live
born person and came up with four degrees of assault against an
unborn child that is roughly equivalent to assault on a live
born person.
SENATOR DYSON suggested it be considered a conceptual amendment
to give the drafters latitude to make the language more
conforming.
CHAIR THERRIAULT recapped then questioned why two sections were
removed and were added five.
MR. KELLER replied four degrees of assault are addressed rather
than two, affirmative defense is added, and finally a statement
is included differentiating between assault and murder.
4:07:03 PM
SENATOR ELTON asked if the amendment is drafted so it would be
an affirmative defense if there were an assault instead of
murder.
MR. KELLER replied some sections require intent. In crimes
against the unborn there is just murder of the unborn child
instead of first-degree murder, second-degree murder,
manslaughter, and criminally negligent homicide.
SENATOR ELTON asserted there is a distinction between intent and
knowing. It's an affirmative defense if it's an assault and you
didn't know, regardless of intent. It's not a defense if it's a
murder and you didn't know.
4:10:05 PM
CHAIR THERRIAULT called on Ms. Smith.
ANNIE SMITH, Public Affairs Manager, Planned Parenthood of
Alaska, testified via teleconference to oppose SB 20 as
currently written. She said:
We respectfully request that the bill be reworked to
focus on domestic violence against women and their
unborn children. .... Committing violence against a
pregnant woman is an abhorrent crime and it deserves
to be severely punished.... The bill does not address
women let alone pregnant women. The bill may be in
conflict with current categories of crime or the new
sentencing requirements that are being worked on with
SB 56.
... We would support a bill that charged offenders
with a felony for harming women and that charged
additional aggravators should the outcome of harming a
woman lead to a miscarriage or stillbirth. Moving the
language of unborn child and murder of a fetus
eliminates the pro-choice debate surrounding this
bill.
We all agree that domestic violence against women
needs to stop. We all know the statistics that
domestic violence is elevated when a woman is
pregnant. In fact, the number one cause of death to a
pregnant woman is homicide.
Planned Parenthood urges you to amend the bill to
focus on women and to allow us all the time to work on
legislation that we can all agree on, legislation that
makes pregnant women safer.
CHAIR THERRIAULT noted that Ms. Smith focused on domestic
violence, and made the point that it's not domestic violence if
someone breaks into a woman's home and harms her. He asked if
she was suggesting that the committee exclusively focus on
behavior that would fall under the umbrella of domestic
violence.
MS. SMITH replied they aren't suggesting that other assault
isn't included; they are simply focusing on a situation that is
most likely to occur within a household.
CHAIR THERRIAULT asked the will of the committee with regard to
the sponsor's proposed conceptual amendment.
SENATOR THOMAS WAGNER motioned to adopt conceptual Amendment 1.
SENATOR ELTON said he wouldn't object to a conceptual amendment,
but he would prefer to review the CS before moving the bill from
committee.
4:15:49 PM.
CHAIR GENE THERRIAULT stated that without objection SB 20 would
be held in committee to provide the drafters and staff time to
incorporate the proposed amendment. Furthermore, at Senator
Elton's suggestion, a Department of Law representative would be
available for questions at the next hearing.
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