HB478 Alabama 2010 Session

Existing law prescribes criminal penalties for any person who willfully violates a protection, restraining, or injunctive order, including a mandatory term of imprisonment of 48 continuous hours for a second offense and 30 days for a third offense. The mandatory term of imprisonment cannot be suspended

This bill would increase the mandatory term of imprisonment for a person who willfully violates a domestic violence order to a minimum of 30 days imprisonment that cannot be suspended for a second offense and a minimum of 120 days imprisonment that cannot be suspended for a third offense. This bill would relocate the criminal penalties to Title 13A of the Code of Alabama 1975. This bill would extend these penalties to include violations of domestic violence orders issued by courts of Indian tribes and U.S. territories. This bill would specify that a domestic violence order not issued pursuant to this act specify that a history of violence or abuse exists in order for this act to apply. This bill would also provide that a person arrested for violation of a condition of release could be held without bail pursuant to the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure. This bill would also repeal existing law which provides that lack of knowledge of an order is an affirmative defense at a trial for a violation of a domestic violence order under this chapter

Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, prohibits a general law whose purpose or effect would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds from becoming effective with regard to a local governmental entity without enactment by a 2/3 vote unless: it comes within one of a number of specified exceptions; it is approved by the affected entity; or the Legislature appropriates funds, or provides a local source of revenue, to the entity for the purpose

The purpose or effect of this bill would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of the amendment. However, the bill does not require approval of a local governmental entity or enactment by a 2/3 vote to become effective because it comes within one of the specified exceptions contained in the amendment

Relating to domestic orders; to amend Sections 30-5A-1, 30-5A-2, and 30-5A-4, Code of Alabama 1975; to amend and renumber Section 30-5A-3; to provide for legislative intent; to provide further for criminal penalties for violations of domestic violence orders; to provide for the content of orders not issued pursuant to this act; and in connection therewith would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended.