SENATE BILL REPORT

                   HB 1142

              As Reported By Senate Committee On:

                   Judiciary, March 29, 1999

Title:  An act relating to technical corrections to various criminal laws.

Brief Description:  Making technical corrections to various criminal laws.

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

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Judiciary:  3/24/99, 3/29/99 [DP].

SENATE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

Majority Report:  Do pass.

  Signed by Senators Heavey, Chair; Kline, Vice Chair; Costa, Goings, Hargrove, Haugen, Johnson, Long, McCaslin, Roach and Thibaudeau.

Staff:  Penny Nerup (786-7484)

Background:  Technical errors occur in statutes for a variety of reasons.  Many occur because of successive amendments to the same section of law over several years.  Others are the result of simple drafting errors or failure to find and amend every statute that refers to another statute.  Still others are simple things, such as mistakes in spelling or obvious clerical or typographical errors.

The Code Reviser's Office, under the direction of the Statute Law Committee, is authorized to correct certain "manifest errors" in the statutes.  The Code Reviser is also authorized to recommend to the Legislature changes regarding deficiencies, conflicts, obsolescence, and the need for reorganization of the statutes.  The Code Reviser proposes the following changes in order to correct technical defects in current statutes.

Summary of Bill:  Various statutes relating to the criminal law are revised to correct technical defects.  These defects include: statutes which cross-reference other statutes that have been repealed; statutes which contain incorrect cross-references to subsections that have been renumbered; statutes that refer to entities, such as agencies or accounts, that no longer exist or which have had their names changed; statutes that, by their own terms, have expired as of a date which has already passed; and statutes with long definition sections in which the terms defined are not in alphabetical order.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  This bill makes technical corrections to 52 sections of the criminal code.  No policy has changed.  The Statute Law Committee authorizes the Code Reviser to correct manifest errors.  We find the sections that need correction and then bring those sections to the Legislature as the Code Reviser does not have the authority to change the law.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  Dennis Cooper, Code Reviser (pro).