An Act To Allow District Attorneys To Approve Immunity Requests
Maine Legislature, Session 121, LD 1399
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: NORBERT, PENDLETON
Amends: 15 MRSA §1314-A

12lst MAINE LEGISLATURE 
Legislative Document 
No. 1399 
H.P.1026 
House of Representatives, March 20, 2003 
An Act To Allow District Attorneys To Approve Immunity Requests 
Submitted by the Department of the Attorney General pursuant to Joint Rule 204. 
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative NORBERT of Portland. 
Cosponsored by Senator PENDLETON of Cumberland. 
Printed on recycled paper 
'17/~ /h.7l!d£~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 15 MRSA §1314-A, as amended by PL 1985, c. 386, § l, 
is further amended to read: 
§13l4-A. Compelling evidence in criminal or juvenile proceedings; 
iDmunity 
In any criminal proceeding before a court or grand jury, or 
in any juvenile proceeding before a court, if a person refuses to 
answer questions or produce evidence of any kind on the ground 
that ae the person may 
be incriminated thereby, 
and if the 
pFasee~EiB~ attorney for the State, in writingT and with the 
written approval of the Attorney General or, in the event the 
prosecution is being conducted by the office of the district 
attorney, the written approval of either the Attorney General or 
the district attorney for that district, requests the court to 
order 
that 
person to 
answer 
the 
questions 
or 
produce 
the 
evidence, and the court after notice to the witness and hearing 
saall-se-a£deF orders, unless it the court finds to do so would 
be clearly contrary to the public interest, that person shall 
comply with the order. After complying, 
and if, but for this 
section, ae that person would have had the right to withhold the 
answers given or the evidence produced by aim that person, that 
person saall may not be prosecuted or subjected to penalty, 
forfeiture or adjudication for or on account of any transaction, 
matter or thing concerning which, in accordance with the order, 
ae that person gave answer or produced evidence. Failure to 
answer questions or produce evidence as ordered by the court 
following 
notice 
and 
hearing 
saall--£e~ 
.. 6~.,it~te 
constitutes 
contempt of court. 
He The person may nevertheless be prosecuted 
or subjected to penalty, 
forfeiture or adjudication for 
any 
perjury, false swearing or contempt committed in answering, or 
failing 
to 
answer, 
or 
in producing 
or 
failing 
to 
produce 
evidence, in accordance with the order. 
SUMMARY 
The bill 
changes 
current 
law 
by 
expressly 
allowing 
a 
district attorney as well as the Attorney General to provide the 
necessary written approval when the criminal proceeding before a 
court or grand jury, or the juvenile proceeding before a court, 
is being prosecuted by the office of the district attorney rather 
than the Office of the Attorney General or by a person not of 
either office but authorized by law to act as a representative of 
the State in a criminal proceeding. 
The bill also makes clerical 
and gender-specific language changes. 
Page l-LR1824(l)