FINAL BILL REPORT

                  HB 1142

                         C 143 L 99

                     Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Making technical corrections to various criminal laws.

Sponsors:  Representatives Constantine and McDonald; by request of Statute Law Committee.

House Committee on Judiciary

Senate Committee on Judiciary

Background:

Technical errors may develop in the statutes for a variety of reasons.  Many of these errors are the result of successive amendments to the same section of law over several years.  Some are the result of simple drafting errors.  Others are caused by a failure to find and amend every statute that contains a reference to another statute, when the repeal or amendment of one of the statutes makes the reference incorrect.

The Code Reviser's office, under the direction of the Statute Law Committee, is authorized to correct certain "manifest errors" in the statutes.  These errors may include such things as mistakes in spelling, or obvious clerical or typographical errors.

The Code Reviser is also authorized to recommend to the Legislature changes regarding statutory deficiencies, conflicts and obsolescences, and regarding the need for reorganization in the statutes.

Summary:

Various statutes relating to criminal law are revised to correct technical defects.  These defects include such things as:

Cstatutes that contain cross-references to other statutes that have been repealed;

Cstatutes that contain incorrect cross-references to subsections that have been renumbered by amendments to the referred-to statute;

Cstatutes that refer to entities, such as agencies or accounts, that no longer exist or have had name changes as the result of amendments to other statutes;

Cstatutes that by their own terms expired as of a date that has already passed; and

Cstatutes that have long definition sections in which the terms defined are not in alphabetical order.

Votes on Final Passage:

House940

Senate380

Effective:July 25, 1999