Bill Text: FL S1022 | 2023 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Sexual Battery on Mentally Incapacitated Persons
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2023-05-05 - Died in Criminal Justice [S1022 Detail]
Download: Florida-2023-S1022-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2023 SB 1022
By Senator Stewart
17-00892-23 20231022__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to sexual battery on mentally
3 incapacitated persons; amending s. 794.011, F.S.;
4 providing definitions; revising terminology;
5 prohibiting sexual battery upon a person who is
6 involuntarily or voluntarily mentally incapacitated;
7 providing criminal penalties; amending ss. 92.565 and
8 787.06, F.S.; conforming provisions to changes made by
9 the act; providing an effective date.
10
11 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
12
13 Section 1. Paragraph (l) is added to subsection (1) of
14 section 794.011, Florida Statutes, present paragraphs (c) and
15 (d) of that subsection are redesignated as paragraphs (d) and
16 (c), respectively, and present paragraph (d) of that subsection
17 and paragraph (e) of subsection (4) are amended, to read:
18 794.011 Sexual battery.—
19 (1) As used in this chapter:
20 (c)(d) “Involuntarily mentally incapacitated” means
21 temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling a person’s
22 own conduct due to the influence of a narcotic, anesthetic, or
23 intoxicating substance administered without his or her consent
24 or due to any other act committed upon that person without his
25 or her consent.
26 (l) “Voluntarily mentally incapacitated” means temporarily
27 incapable of appraising or controlling a person’s own conduct
28 due to the influence of a narcotic, anesthetic, or intoxicating
29 substance administered with his or her consent or due to any
30 other act committed upon that person with his or her consent.
31 (4)
32 (e) The following circumstances apply to paragraphs (a)
33 (d):
34 1. The victim is physically helpless to resist.
35 2. The offender coerces the victim to submit by threatening
36 to use force or violence likely to cause serious personal injury
37 on the victim, and the victim reasonably believes that the
38 offender has the present ability to execute the threat.
39 3. The offender coerces the victim to submit by threatening
40 to retaliate against the victim, or any other person, and the
41 victim reasonably believes that the offender has the ability to
42 execute the threat in the future.
43 4. The offender, without the prior knowledge or consent of
44 the victim, administers or has knowledge of someone else
45 administering to the victim any narcotic, anesthetic, or other
46 intoxicating substance that involuntarily or voluntarily
47 mentally incapacitates or physically incapacitates the victim.
48 5. The victim is mentally defective, and the offender has
49 reason to believe this or has actual knowledge of this fact.
50 6. The victim is physically incapacitated.
51 7. The offender is a law enforcement officer, correctional
52 officer, or correctional probation officer as defined in s.
53 943.10(1), (2), (3), (6), (7), (8), or (9), who is certified
54 under s. 943.1395 or is an elected official exempt from such
55 certification by virtue of s. 943.253, or any other person in a
56 position of control or authority in a probation, community
57 control, controlled release, detention, custodial, or similar
58 setting, and such officer, official, or person is acting in such
59 a manner as to lead the victim to reasonably believe that the
60 offender is in a position of control or authority as an agent or
61 employee of government.
62 Section 2. Paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section
63 92.565, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
64 92.565 Admissibility of confession in sexual abuse cases.—
65 (2) In any criminal action in which the defendant is
66 charged with a crime against a victim under s. 787.06(3),
67 involving commercial sexual activity; s. 794.011; s. 794.05; s.
68 800.04; s. 826.04; s. 827.03, involving sexual abuse; s. 827.04,
69 involving sexual abuse; s. 827.071; or s. 847.0135(5), or any
70 other crime involving sexual abuse of another, or with any
71 attempt, solicitation, or conspiracy to commit any of these
72 crimes, the defendant’s memorialized confession or admission is
73 admissible during trial without the state having to prove a
74 corpus delicti of the crime if the court finds in a hearing
75 conducted outside the presence of the jury that the state is
76 unable to show the existence of each element of the crime, and
77 having so found, further finds that the defendant’s confession
78 or admission is trustworthy. Factors which may be relevant in
79 determining whether the state is unable to show the existence of
80 each element of the crime include, but are not limited to, the
81 fact that, at the time the crime was committed, the victim was:
82 (a) Physically helpless, involuntarily mentally
83 incapacitated, voluntarily mentally incapacitated, or mentally
84 defective, as those terms are defined in s. 794.011;
85 Section 3. Paragraph (g) of subsection (3) of section
86 787.06, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
87 787.06 Human trafficking.—
88 (3) Any person who knowingly, or in reckless disregard of
89 the facts, engages in human trafficking, or attempts to engage
90 in human trafficking, or benefits financially by receiving
91 anything of value from participation in a venture that has
92 subjected a person to human trafficking:
93 (g) For commercial sexual activity in which any child
94 younger than 18 years of age or an adult believed by the person
95 to be a child younger than 18 years of age, or in which any
96 person who is mentally defective, involuntarily or mentally
97 incapacitated, or voluntarily mentally incapacitated, as those
98 terms are defined in s. 794.011(1), is involved commits a life
99 felony, punishable as provided in s. 775.082(3)(a)6., s.
100 775.083, or s. 775.084.
101
102 For each instance of human trafficking of any individual under
103 this subsection, a separate crime is committed and a separate
104 punishment is authorized.
105 Section 4. This act shall take effect October 1, 2023.
