Florida Senate - 2018                                    SB 1430
       
       
        
       By Senator Taddeo
       
       
       
       
       
       40-01492-18                                           20181430__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to plea agreements in cases involving
    3         child deaths; creating s. 921.144, F.S.; requiring
    4         that a state attorney make a written statement
    5         justifying a plea agreement in a case involving the
    6         death of a child in certain circumstances; providing
    7         an effective date.
    8          
    9  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   10  
   11         Section 1. Section 921.144, Florida Statutes, is created to
   12  read:
   13         921.144 Plea agreements; deaths of children.—In a
   14  prosecution for an offense in which the victim of the offense
   15  was a child who died as a result of the offense, if the state
   16  attorney makes a plea agreement with the defendant for a plea of
   17  guilty to an offense that is of a lesser statutory degree or
   18  that otherwise would subject the offender to lesser penalties
   19  than the offense initially charged, the state attorney must
   20  provide the court with a written statement of the reasons
   21  justifying the plea agreement.
   22         Section 2. This act shall take effect October 1, 2018.