HB496 Alabama 2019 Session

Under existing law, deviate sexual intercourse is defined as any act of sexual gratification between persons not married to each other involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another

Under existing law, sexual contact is defined as any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person not married to the actor, done for the purpose of gratifying the sexual desire of either party

Under existing law, mental defectiveness, mental incapacitation, and physical helplessness are individually defined and separated into various sexual offenses

Under existing law, forcible compulsion requires physical force that overcomes earnest resistance or a threat that places a person in fear of immediate death of serious physical injury

Under existing law, sexual misconduct only involves sexual intercourse and deviate sexual intercourse

Existing law sometimes provides for offenses to be committed only on a member of the perpetrator's opposite sex

Further, existing law defines certain criminal offenses as sex crimes for the purpose of application of the Alabama Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification Act

Existing law provides that directing a child to engage in a sex act is one of the criminal offenses defined as a sex crime

This bill would redefine deviate sexual intercourse as sodomy and include mental defectiveness, mental incapacitation, and physical helplessness in a broad definition of incapacitation, and further redefine sexual contact to include touching that occurs through clothing without regard to marital relationship

This bill would expand the definition of forcible compulsion

This bill would provide that certain sexual contact can be an offense under sexual misconduct

This bill would provide additional offenses to be included as sexual torture

This bill would also make certain technical corrections

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 sexual offenses; to amend Sections 13A-5-6, 13A-6-60, 13A-6-61, 13A-6-62, 13A-6-63, 13A-6-64, 13A-6-65, 13A-6-65.1, 13A-6-66, 13A-6-67, 13A-6-68, 13A-6-70, 13A-6-71, 13A-6-81, 13A-6-82, as corrected by Act 2018-406, the Codification Act, 2018 Regular Session, 13A-6-122, 13A-6-241, 13A-6-243, 13A-11-9, 13A-11-32.1, 13A-12-120, 13A-12-121, 13A-12-190, 13A-12-192, 15-3-5, 15-20A-5, and 15-20A-44, as last amended by Act 2018-528, 2018 Regular Session, 15-23-101, and 15-23-102, Code of Alabama 1975, to revise certain definitions and sexual offenses; to expand the definition of forcible compulsion; to provide that certain sexual contact can be an offense under sexual misconduct; to provide additional offenses for sexual torture; to make technical corrections; 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.