Morrell (SB 296) Act No. 124
New law defines "criminal justice agency" as any government agency or subunit thereof, or
private agency that, through statutory authorization or a legal formal agreement with a
governmental unit or agency, has the power of investigation, arrest, detention, prosecution,
adjudication, treatment, supervision, rehabilitation or release of persons suspected, charged,
or convicted of a crime; or that collects, stores, processes, transmits, or disseminates criminal
history record or crime information.
Requires all criminal justice agencies charged with the maintenance, storage, and
preservation of sexual assault collection kits to conduct a physical inventory of all such kits
being stored by the agency and to compile, in writing, a report to the director of the LSP
Crime Lab containing the number of untested sexual assault collection kits in the possession
of the agency and the date the sexual assault kit was collected by January 1, 2015.
Requires the LSP Crime Lab to prepare and transmit a report to the chairman of the Senate
Committee on Judiciary B and the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on
Judiciary containing the number of untested sexual assault collection kits being stored by
each parish, by each criminal justice agency, and the date the untested kit was collected by
March 1, 2015. Also requires the report to identify criminal justice agencies that failed to
report.
Effective August 1, 2014.
(Adds R.S. 15:622)