Q: Can you explain how the State Attorney’s Office interacts with the Florida Legislature?
A: We are presently in the middle of the annual legislative session, which this year runs from early January through early March. Our office interacts in a couple of ways with the legislature when it comes to passing laws. I think it’s good to give lawmakers our perspectives.
There are various committees that I regularly deal with and testify before: the House Committee on Criminal Justice and the House Committee on Criminal Justice Appropriations are probably the most frequent.
Sometimes we are called to testify our opinion on proposed laws; this year I have testified on laws regarding immigration and child pornography. Depending on how we feel about how a proposed law will affect public safety, we might give our opinion in favor of or in opposition to the bill. Sometimes we are invited by the committee to testify and other times our coalition of the 19 State Attorneys, known as the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, will monitor bills coming through committees and go to Tallahassee to speak one way or the other if we feel it’s needed.
Q: Do you interact in other ways?
A: Another way we interact with the legislature is by helping to draft language for a bill we feel is necessary and then submitting it to a legislator for their staff to put in the form of a bill. A bill must pass three committees before being eligible to go to the House floor for a vote.
This year, we worked with District 17 Representative Jessica Baker, who introduced the Officer Jason Raynor Act. We had found that some statutes pertaining to resisting arrest were inconsistent. This bill clarifies the statutes to make it crystal clear that a defendant cannot resist, with violence or the threat of violence, the arrest or detention by a law enforcement officer who is working within the scope of his or her official duties. This bill has passed all three House committees and the companion bill in the Senate is expected to pass the remaining two necessary committees. Then, we are hopeful both chambers will vote to pass the bill and it will go to the governor to sign into law.
