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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
A bill to be entitled 1
An act relating to cold case murders; providing a 2
short title; creating s. 782.41, F.S.; defining terms; 3
requiring the heads of law enforcement agencies or 4
their designees to review certain cold cases upon 5
receiving a written application from a designated 6
person; requiring the heads of law enforcement 7
agencies or their designees to make a specified 8
determination upon receiving such application; 9
providing requirements for such reviews; requiring law 10
enforcement agencies to conduct a full reinvestigation 11
of a cold case under certain circumstances; providing 12
requirements for such reinvestigations; requiring law 13
enforcement agencies to develop certain written 14
applications; requiring the heads of law enforcement 15
agencies or their designees to adopt certain 16
procedures to ensure compliance with specified 17
provisions; requiring law enforcement agencies to 18
provide specified training; requiring law enforcement 19
agencies to provide written confirmation to a 20
designated person of receipt of an application to 21
review a cold case; requiring that an application for 22
review of a cold case that does not satisfy certain 23
criteria be denied; requiring the head of the law 24
enforcement agency or his or her designee to issue to 25
HB 837 2024
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
the designated person a written explanation of the 26
reason or reasons for the denial; providing timeframe 27
and notice requirements for law enforcement agencies' 28
cold case reviews after receipt of a written 29
application; requiring law enforcement agencies, by a 30
specified date and periodically thereafter, to report 31
certain data to the Global Forensic and Justice Center 32
at Florida International University; requiring the 33
center to establish and maintain a case tracking 34
system and searchable public website that includes 35
specified information; requiring coordination between 36
law enforcement agencies if more than one law 37
enforcement agency conducted the initial 38
investigation; providing that specified provisions are 39
subject to appropriations; providing applicability; 40
authorizing a medical examiner to issue death 41
certificates with nonspecific causes of death and 42
manner of murder under certain circumstances; 43
providing an effective date. 44
45
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 46
47
Section 1. This act may be cited as the "Decker -Backmann 48
Act." 49
Section 2. Section 782.41, Florida Statutes, is created to 50
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
read: 51
782.41 Cold case murder; review; reinvestigation. — 52
(1) As used in this section, the term: 53
(a) "Cold case" means a murder: 54
1. For which no likely perpetrator has been identified; 55
and 56
2. That was committed more than 5 years before the date of 57
an application requesting a review submitted by a designated 58
person, that was previously investigated by a law enforcement 59
agency, and for which all probative leads have been exhausted. 60
(b) "Designated perso n" means an immediate family member 61
or an immediate family member's designated legal representative, 62
which representative must be a member in good standing of The 63
Florida Bar. 64
(c) "Immediate family member" means a parent, parent -in-65
law, grandparent, gran dparent-in-law, sibling, spouse, child, or 66
stepchild of a victim, or any person who exercised in loco 67
parentis control over such victim younger than 18 years of age 68
at the time of the murder. 69
(d) "Law enforcement agency" means a law enforcement 70
agency with the jurisdiction to engage in the detection, 71
investigation, or prosecution of a cold case. 72
(e) "Murder" means any criminal offense provided under s. 73
782.04, s. 782.071, or s. 782.072. 74
(f) "Probative lead" means evidence that is sufficiently 75
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useful to prove an element of the crime and that was not 76
identified or determined as part of the previous investigation 77
by a law enforcement agency. 78
(g) "Victim" means an individual who was murdered and 79
whose case has been designated as a cold case. 80
(2) The head of a law enforcement agency or his or her 81
designee shall review a cold case upon receiving a written 82
application from a designated person to determine if a full 83
reinvestigation would result in any of the following: 84
(a) The identification of new prob ative leads. 85
(b) The identification of a likely perpetrator. 86
(3) A review conducted pursuant to subsection (2) must 87
include all of the following: 88
(a) An analysis of any investigative procedures that may 89
have been absent or missed in the initial inves tigation. 90
(b) An assessment of whether witnesses should be 91
interviewed or reinterviewed. 92
(c) An examination of physical evidence to determine 93
whether all appropriate forensic testing and analyses were 94
performed in the initial investigation and whether additional 95
testing might produce information relevant to the investigation. 96
(d) An update of the case file using the most current 97
investigative standards as of the date of the review, if such 98
standards may help develop probative leads. 99
(4)(a) The law enforcement agency must conduct a full 100
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reinvestigation of the cold case if the review pursuant to 101
subsection (2) concludes that such reinvestigation may result in 102
previously unidentified probative leads or in the identification 103
of a likely perpetrator. 104
(b) A full reinvestigation must include a review of all 105
available evidence and an analysis of those items that may 106
contain forensic value which were collected for the purpose of 107
developing probative leads or identifying a likely perpetrator. 108
(5)(a) A full reinvestigation required pursuant to 109
subsection (4) may not be conducted solely by the person who 110
previously investigated the murder. 111
(b) Only one full reinvestigation may be undertaken at any 112
time with respect to the same victim. 113
(c) If a full reinves tigation is completed and a likely 114
perpetrator is not identified as a result, an additional case 115
file review or full reinvestigation may not be undertaken for 116
that cold case for a period of 5 years beginning on the date of 117
the conclusion of the reinvestiga tion, unless materially 118
significant evidence is discovered. 119
(6)(a) Each law enforcement agency shall develop a written 120
application to be used by a designated person to request a cold 121
case review under subsection (2). 122
(b) No later than July 1, 2025, the head of each law 123
enforcement agency or his or her designee shall adopt procedures 124
to ensure compliance with this section. 125
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(c) Each law enforcement agency shall train the 126
appropriate law enforcement employees and officers within that 127
law enforcement agen cy on the procedures required and the 128
responsibilities and obligations imposed under this section. 129
(7) The law enforcement agency, as soon as practicable, 130
shall provide to the designated person who submitted the 131
application requesting review of a cold ca se written 132
confirmation of receipt of the application. Such confirmation 133
must include a description of the process for submitting a 134
complaint to, and contact information for, the law enforcement 135
agency's unit responsible for internal investigations involvi ng 136
allegations of misconduct. 137
(8) An application for review of a case that does not meet 138
the criteria for a cold case specified in paragraph (1)(a) must 139
be denied. If an application is denied, the head of the law 140
enforcement agency or his or her designee must issue to the 141
designated person who submitted the application a written 142
explanation of the reason or reasons for the denial of the 143
review. 144
(9) No later than 1 year after receipt of a written 145
application requesting a cold case review, the law enforce ment 146
agency must complete the case file review and conclude, pursuant 147
to subsection (2), whether a full reinvestigation as provided in 148
subsection (4) is warranted. 149
(10) The law enforcement agency may extend, for one time 150
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only, the time limit provided und er subsection (9) for a period 151
not to exceed 6 months if the law enforcement agency finds that 152
the number of case files to be reviewed makes compliance with 153
the time limit impracticable without diverting resources from 154
other law enforcement activities. If the time limit is extended, 155
the law enforcement agency must provide notice and an 156
explanation of its reasoning for the extension to the designated 157
person who submitted the written application for review. 158
(11) By October 1, 2025, and at least quarterly 159
thereafter, each law enforcement agency shall report all data 160
relevant to the review of cold cases to the Global Forensic and 161
Justice Center at Florida International University. 162
(12) The Global Forensic and Justice Center shall 163
establish and maintain a cas e tracking system and searchable 164
public website that includes all of the following information 165
about cold case investigations covered under this section: 166
(a) The number of written applications for cold case 167
reviews filed with each law enforcement agency as provided under 168
subsection (6). 169
(b) The number of full reinvestigations initiated and 170
closed under subsection (9). 171
(c) The total number of cases in which the time for review 172
was extended and an explanation of the reasons for any such 173
extensions under subsection (10). 174
(d) Statistical information on the aggregate number of 175
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cold cases, suspects, arrests, indictments, and convictions. 176
(13) If more than one law enforcement agency conducted the 177
initial investigation of a cold case, each law enforcement 178
agency must coordinate the case file review or full 179
reinvestigation such that there is only one joint case file 180
review or full reinvestigation occurring at a time as required 181
by paragraph (5)(b). 182
(14) The operation of this section is subject to the 183
availability of funds specifically appropriated by the 184
Legislature or other relevant political subdivision of this 185
state for this purpose. 186
(15) This section applies to any cold case in which the 187
murder occurred on or after January 1, 1970. 188
(16) A medical examiner may issue a death certificate with 189
a nonspecific cause of death and manner of murder if the medical 190
examiner determines that the release of such information would 191
not hinder the murder investigation. 192
Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025. 193