Title: Cold Case Murders

Summary: Requires law enforcement agencies to review certain cold cases upon receiving written application from designated person & make specified determination; provides requirements for such reviews; requires law enforcement agencies to conduct full reinvestigation of cold case; provides requirements for such reinvestigations; requires certain procedures to ensure compliance; requires law enforcement agencies to provide specified training; requires law enforcement agencies to provide written confirmation of receipt of application; requires written explanation of reason or reasons for denial; provides timeframe & notice requirements; requires law enforcement agencie to report certain data to Global Forensic & Justice Center at FIU; requires coordination between law enforcement agencies if more than one law enforcement agency conducted initial investigation;; authorizes medical examiner to issue death certificates with nonspecific causes of death & manner of murder.

Full Text:
An act relating to cold case murders; providing a short title; creating s. 782.41, F.S.; defining terms; requiring the heads of law enforcement agencies or their designees to review certain cold cases upon receiving a written application from a designated person; requiring the heads of law enforcement agencies or their designees to make a specified determination upon receiving such application; providing requirements for such reviews; requiring law enforcement agencies to conduct a full reinvestigation of a cold case under certain circumstances; providing requirements for such reinvestigations; requiring law enforcement agencies to develop certain written applications; requiring the heads of law enforcement agencies or their designees to adopt certain procedures to ensure compliance with specified provisions; requiring law enforcement agencies to provide specified training; requiring law enforcement agencies to provide written confirmation to a designated person of receipt of an application to review a cold case; requiring that an application for review of a cold case that does not satisfy certain criteria be denied; requiring the head of the law enforcement agency or his or her designee to issue to HB 2024 the designated person a written explanation of the reason or reasons for the denial; providing timeframe and notice requirements for law enforcement agencies' cold case reviews after receipt of a written application; requiring law enforcement agencies, by a specified date and periodically thereafter, to report certain data to the Global Forensic and Justice Center at Florida International University; requiring the center to establish and maintain a case tracking system and searchable public website that includes specified information; requiring coordination between law enforcement agencies if more than one law enforcement agency conducted the initial investigation; providing that specified provisions are subject to appropriations; providing applicability; authorizing a medical examiner to issue death certificates with nonspecific causes of death and manner of murder under certain circumstances; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. This act may be cited as the "Decker-Backmann Act." Section 2. Se ction 782.41, Florida Statutes, is created to HB 2024 read: 782.41 Cold case murder; review; reinvestigation.-(1) As used in this section, the term: (a) "Cold case" means a murder: 1. For which no likely perpetrator has been identified; and 2. That was committed more than years before the date of an application requesting a review submitted by a designated person, that was previously investigated by a law enforcement agency, and for which all probative leads have been exhausted. (b) "Designated perso n" means an immediate family member or an immediate family member's designated legal representative, which representative must be a member in good standing of The Florida Bar. (c) "Immediate family member" means a parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, gran dparent-in-law, sibling, spouse, child, or stepchild of a victim, or any person who exercised in loco parentis control over such victim younger than years of age at the time of the murder. (d) "Law enforcement agency" means a law enforcement agency wi th the jurisdiction to engage in the detection, investigation, or prosecution of a cold case. (e) "Murder" means any criminal offense provided under s. 782.04, s. 782.071, or s. 782.072. (f) "Probative lead" means evidence that is sufficiently HB 2024 useful to prove an element of the crime and that was not identified or determined as part of the previous investigation by a law enforcement agency. (g) "Victim" means an individual who was murdered and whose case has been designated as a cold case. (2) The head of a law enforcement agency or his or her designee shall review a cold case upon receiving a written application from a designated person to determine if a full reinvestigation would result in any of the following: (a) The identification of new prob ative leads. (b) The identification of a likely perpetrator. (3) A review conducted pursuant to subsection (2) must include all of the following: (a) An analysis of any investigative procedures that may have been absent or missed in the initial inves tigation. (b) An assessment of whether witnesses should be interviewed or reinterviewed. (c) An examination of physical evidence to determine whether all appropriate forensic testing and analyses were performed in the initial investigation and whether additional testing might produce information relevant to the investigation. (d) An update of the case file using the most current investigative standards as of the date of the review, if such standards may help develop probative leads. (4)(a) The law enforcement agency must conduct a full HB 2024 reinvestigation of the cold case if the review pursuant to subsection (2) concludes that such reinvestigation may result in previously unidentified probative leads or in the identification of a likely perpetrator. (b) A full reinvestigation must include a review of all available evidence and an analysis of those items that may contain forensic value which were collected for the purpose of developing probative leads or identifying a likely perpetrator. (5)(a) A full reinvestigation required pursuant to subsection (4) may not be conducted solely by the person who previously investigated the murder. (b) Only one full reinvestigation may be undertaken at any time with respect to the same victim. (c) If a full reinves tigation is completed and a likely perpetrator is not identified as a result, an additional case file review or full reinvestigation may not be undertaken for that cold case for a period of years beginning on the date of the conclusion of the reinvestiga tion, unless materially significant evidence is discovered. (6)(a) Each law enforcement agency shall develop a written application to be used by a designated person to request a cold case review under subsection (2). (b) No later than July 1, 2025, the head of each law enforcement agency or his or her designee shall adopt procedures to ensure compliance with this section. HB 2024 (c) Each law enforcement agency shall train the appropriate law enforcement employees and officers within that law enforcement agen cy on the procedures required and the responsibilities and obligations imposed under this section. (7) The law enforcement agency, as soon as practicable, shall provide to the designated person who submitted the application requesting review of a cold ca se written confirmation of receipt of the application. Such confirmation must include a description of the process for submitting a complaint to, and contact information for, the law enforcement agency's unit responsible for internal investigations involvi ng allegations of misconduct. (8) An application for review of a case that does not meet the criteria for a cold case specified in paragraph (1)(a) must be denied. If an application is denied, the head of the law enforcement agency or his or her designee must issue to the designated person who submitted the application a written explanation of the reason or reasons for the denial of the review. (9) No later than year after receipt of a written application requesting a cold case review, the law enforce ment agency must complete the case file review and conclude, pursuant to subsection (2), whether a full reinvestigation as provided in subsection (4) is warranted. (10) The law enforcement agency may extend, for one time HB 2024 only, the time limit provided und er subsection (9) for a period not to exceed months if the law enforcement agency finds that the number of case files to be reviewed makes compliance with the time limit impracticable without diverting resources from other law enforcement activities. If the time limit is extended, the law enforcement agency must provide notice and an explanation of its reasoning for the extension to the designated person who submitted the written application for review. (11) By October 1, 2025, and at least quarterly thereafter, each law enforcement agency shall report all data relevant to the review of cold cases to the Global Forensic and Justice Center at Florida International University. (12) The Global Forensic and Justice Center shall establish and maintain a cas etracking system and searchable public website that includes all of the following information about cold case investigations covered under this section: (a) The number of written applications for cold case reviews filed with each law enforcement agency as provided under subsection (6). (b) The number of full reinvestigations initiated and closed under subsection (9). (c) The total number of cases in which the time for review was extended and an explanation of the reasons for any such extensions under subsection (10). (d) Statistical information on the aggregate number of HB 2024 cold cases, suspects, arrests, indictments, and convictions. (13) If more than one law enforcement agency conducted the initial investigation of a cold case, each law enforcement agency must coordinate the case file review or full reinvestigation such that there is only one joint case file review or full reinvestigation occurring at a time as required by paragraph (5)(b). (14) The operation of this section is subject to the availability of funds specifically appropriated by the Legislature or other relevant political subdivision of this state for this purpose. (15) This section applies to any cold case in which the murder occurred on or after January 1, 1970. (16) A medical examiner may issue a death certificate with a nonspecific cause of death and manner of murder if the medical examiner determines that the release of such information would not hinder the murder investigation. Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.