Bill Text: CA AB360 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Excited delirium.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-10-08 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 431, Statutes of 2023. [AB360 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB360-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  March 16, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 360

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Introduced by Assembly Member Gipson
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bryan, McCarty, McKinnor, and Weber)

February 01, 2023

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An act to add Section 1156.5 to the Evidence Code, and to add Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 24400) to Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to excited delirium.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 360, as amended, Gipson. Excited delirium.

(1) Existing law specifies the content of a certificate of death and sets forth the persons responsible for completing the certificate of death. Existing law requires certain medical and health content on the certificate.

This bill would prohibit “excited delirium,” as defined, from being recognized as a valid medical diagnosis or cause of death in this state. The bill would prohibit a coroner or medical examiner from stating on the certificate of death or in any report that the cause of death was excited delirium.

(2) Existing law designates specified employees and appointees of certain public entities to be peace officers. Existing law grants certain powers to peace officers and prescribes certain requirements and responsibilities for peace officers and their employing or appointing entities.

The bill would prohibit a peace officer from using the term “excited delirium” to describe an individual in an incident report, but would not prohibit the peace officer from describing an individual’s behavior, as specified.

(3)Existing law specifies the persons who may bring a civil action for the death of a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. Existing law specifies the admissibility of certain evidence in wrongful death matters.

This bill would prohibit a person from using the term “excited delirium” as part of an affirmative defense in a civil wrongful death action, but would not prohibit the person from describing an individual’s behavior, as specified.

(3) Existing law governs the rules of evidence in every action before the Supreme Court or a court of appeal or superior court, including rules relating to judicial notice, evidentiary burdens, witnesses, opinion testimony and scientific evidence, privileges, evidence affected or excluded by extrinsic policies, hearsay evidence, and writings.

This bill would deem evidence that a person experienced or suffered an excited delirium inadmissible in a civil action, but would not prohibit a party or witness from testifying as to the factual circumstances surrounding the case, including a person’s demeanor, conduct, and physical and mental condition, provided it is not attributed to excited delirium.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 1156.5 is added to the Evidence Code, to read:

1156.5.

 (a) Evidence that a person suffered or experienced excited delirium shall not be admitted in any civil action.

(b) A party or witness may describe the factual circumstances surrounding the case, including a person’s demeanor, conduct, and physical and mental condition at issue, but shall not describe or diagnose such demeanor, conduct, or condition as excited delirium, or attribute such demeanor, conduct, or physical and mental condition to excited delirium.

(c) For the purposes of this section, “excited delirium” means a term used to describe a person’s state of agitation, excitability, paranoia, extreme aggression, physical violence, and apparent immunity to pain for which there is insufficient scientific evidence and diagnostic criteria to recognize as a medical condition.

SECTION 1.SEC. 2.

 Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 24400) is added to Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:

CHAPTER  3.5. Excited Delirium

24400.

 For the purposes of this chapter, “excited delirium” means a term used to describe a persons’s state of agitation, excitability, paranoia, extreme aggression, physical violence, and apparent immunity to pain. pain for which there is insufficient scientific evidence and diagnostic criteria to recognize as a medical condition.

24401.

 (a) Excited delirium shall not be recognized as a valid medical diagnosis or cause of death in this state.

(b) A government entity, or employee or contractor of a government entity, shall not acknowledge or otherwise validate document, testify to, or otherwise use in any official capacity or communication excited delirium as a recognized medical diagnosis or cause of death.

(c) A coroner or medical examiner shall not state on the certificate of death, or in any report, that the cause of death was excited delirium. The coroner or medical examiner may list and describe the contributing causes of death, but shall not describe the underlying cause as excited delirium.

24402.

 A peace officer shall not use the term excited delirium to describe an individual in an incident report completed by a peace officer. A peace officer may describe the characteristics of an individual’s conduct, but shall not generally describe the conduct individual’s demeanor, conduct, or physical and mental condition at issue as excited delirium.

24403.

 A person shall not use the term excited delirium as part of an affirmative defense in a civil wrongful death action. A party Pursuant to Section 1156.5 of the Evidence Code, evidence that a person suffered or experienced excited delirium is inadmissible in any civil action. A party or witness may describe the factual circumstances surrounding the case, including the behavior of the decedent on whose behalf a wrongful death action has been filed, but the party or witness shall not state that the decedent suffered from a person’s demeanor, conduct, and physical and mental condition at issue, but shall not describe or diagnose such demeanor, conduct, or condition as excited delirium, or attribute such demeanor, conduct, or physical and mental condition to excited delirium.