An Act To Implement Certain Recommendations of the Criminal Law Advisory Commission Relative to the Maine Bail Code, Statutory Post-conviction Review, the Maine Criminal Code and a Related Statute

Sec. 1. 15 MRSA §1091-A,  as enacted by PL 1995, c. 456, §1, is amended to read:

§ 1091-A. Failure to report

Sec. 2. 15 MRSA §2124, sub-§1, ¶F,  as enacted by PL 2011, c. 601, §7, is amended to read:

Sec. 3. 15 MRSA §2124, sub-§1, ¶F-1  is enacted to read:

Sec. 4. 15 MRSA §2125,  as amended by PL 2011, c. 601, §8, is further amended to read:

§ 2125. Ground for relief

A person who satisfies the prerequisites of section 2124 may show that the challenged criminal judgment or sentence is unlawful or unlawfully imposed, or that the impediment resulting from the challenged post-sentencing proceeding is unlawful, as a result of any error or ground for relief, whether or not of record, unless the error is harmless or unless relief is unavailable for a reason provided in section 2126 or , section 2128 unless section 2128-A applies, or section 2128-B.

Sec. 5. 15 MRSA §2126,  as amended by PL 1985, c. 556, §2, is further amended to read:

§ 2126. Exhaustion

A person under restraint or impediment specified in section 2124 must also demonstrate that he the person has previously exhausted remedies incidental to proceedings in the trial court, on appeal or administrative remedies. A person who has taken an appeal from a judgment of conviction or , a juvenile adjudication or a judgment of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity is not precluded from utilizing the remedy of this chapter while the appeal is pending , provided that the . The post-conviction review proceeding is automatically stayed pending resolution of the appeal unless the Appellate Court on motion and for good cause otherwise directs.

Sec. 6. 15 MRSA §2138, sub-§12,  as amended by PL 2011, c. 601, §13, is further amended to read:

Sec. 7. 17-A MRSA §256, sub-§1, ¶B,  as amended by PL 2005, c. 655, §1, is further amended to read:

Sec. 8. 17-A MRSA §261, sub-§3,  as enacted by PL 2007, c. 393, §1, is amended to read:

Sec. 9. 17-A MRSA §757, sub-§1, ¶B,  as enacted by PL 1975, c. 499, §1, is amended to read:

Sec. 10. 17-A MRSA §1304, sub-§3, ¶B,  as enacted by PL 1999, c. 367, §5, is amended to read:

Sec. 11. 22 MRSA §2383-B, sub-§2, ¶¶E and F,  as amended by PL 1997, c. 340, §5, are further amended to read:

Sec. 12. 22 MRSA §2383-B, sub-§2, ¶G  is enacted to read:

SUMMARY

This bill implements the Criminal Law Advisory Commission recommendations as follows.

1. Current law provides that a person who has been sentenced but granted a stay of execution to report to the court at a specific time and who fails to report commits a Class E crime or a Class C crime depending on the length of the original sentence imposed. Existing statute does not specify a culpable mental state for failure to report. This bill clarifies that a failure to report is a strict liability crime, which means that it does not include a culpable mental state element, making it equivalent in this respect to a failure to appear and a violation of a condition of release.

2. In the context of a failure to report, it amends language to ensure that circumstances in which a sentence is automatically stayed or automatically terminated are included in addition to circumstances in which the stay order provides a specific date.

3. It makes a technical correction to the affirmative defense language for failure to report.

4. Current law provides for an action for post-conviction review of a criminal judgment or of a post-sentencing proceeding following the criminal judgment when the challenged criminal judgment or post-sentencing proceeding is causing a present restraint or other specified impediment. This bill provides that these restraints and impediments include community service work imposed by the challenged criminal judgment that has not been fully performed when the person has not inexcusably failed to complete the work within the time specified by the court.

5. It rectifies an oversight that occurred during the Second Regular Session of the 125th Legislature when the law granting grounds for relief to show that a challenged criminal judgment or sentence is unlawful or unlawfully imposed was amended.

6. It provides that a person who has taken an appeal from a judgment of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity may use the remedy of post-conviction review while the appeal is pending.

7. It makes a number of technical corrections to clarify provisions regarding the exhaustion of remedies with respect to appeals.

8. It amends the Class C version of the crime of visual sexual aggression against a child by adding that a person is guilty of the crime if the person engages in the prohibited activity for the purpose of causing affront or alarm. This language was included in the Class D version of the crime but omitted from the Class C version of the crime when both were enacted by Public Law 2003, chapter 711, Part B, section 4.

9. It amends the law that provides an affirmative defense to prosecution for prohibited contact with a minor to make clear that the defendant may not be the person whose consent with respect to contact with the minor provides the basis for the affirmative defense.

10. It provides that when an offender defaults on the payment of a fine and the court determines it to be excusable, in addition to the current statutory options of giving the offender additional time for payment or reducing the amount of each installment, the court may permit the offender to perform community service work if the community service work is supervised by a local sheriff or by a community confinement monitoring agency with which that sheriff has contracted.

11. It adds a person conducting research at a school of pharmacology to the list of persons who are authorized to possess, furnish and have control of scheduled or prescription drugs, controlled substances or hypodermic apparatuses.