Bill requires parental notification of teens’ traffic citations
A bill that would require law enforcement to notify parents if their minor child receives a traffic citation is one vote away from final passage.
House Bill 211 by Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, awaits a vote in the Alabama Senate.
It would require that “if a minor under 19 years of age is cited for any traffic infraction, the citing agency shall make a reasonable effort to notify the minor’s parent, legal guardian, or legal custodian of the infraction unless the minor has been emancipated by court order or operation of law.”
“Currently, your child can be driving your car, using your insurance and your gas, you’re liable for them, but if they get pulled over for a traffic citation, you’ll never know about it if they pay for it.”
The bill is named for Tyler Jeffery “T.J.” Morgan, a 21-year-old Tuscumbia resident who died of blunt force trauma in a wreck in 2022. He wasn’t wearing his seat belt and his mother, April Vafeas, said she thinks he would have survived had he been. The cab of his truck was intact and the airbags had deployed, Vafeas told Alabama Daily News on Thursday.
While going through her son’s belongings, she found three seat belt citations he’d received as a teenager while he was driving a vehicle registered to her.
She said she regularly told Morgan to wear his seat belt and didn’t know he wasn’t.
“That’s something I would have liked the opportunity to have corrected,” she said.
“… I would like other parents to have the opportunity I didn’t have.”
Morgan’s girlfriend, Alexis Glass of Russellville, was also in the truck and died four days after the wreck.
Juneteenth to be established as state-recognized holiday under bill adopted by Alabama House
A bill that would officially recognize Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, as a state holiday passed unanimously in the Alabama House Thursday. However, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, noted that it came with a considerable compromise to receive the approval of the body.
The bill would not create an additional paid holiday for state workers. Instead, they’d be given the option of choosing either Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, or Jefferson Davis’ birthday, a state-observed holiday recognizing the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. It’s celebrated on the first Monday in June.
State offices would remain open on both days.
“We reached a compromise based upon our colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle; Chairman (Chris) Sells, R-Greenville, and others who have expressed certain concerns in their district with adding additional holidays to our holiday schedule here in the state,” Givan said. “It is not a perfect bill, but it is one that will at least be put on the books that will declare Juneteenth as a state holiday. It will also grant to individuals, whichever of their choosing, one personal day for either one of these holidays.”
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, who ultimately abstained from the vote, said the bill was a “struggle” for him given the history of Davis, who spoke openly of his beliefs that Black Americans were inferior to whites.
“On one hand, we want to recognize Juneteenth, but on the other hand, the compromise it is asking me to make is just difficult,” England said.
“… I know people talk about history, heritage, but that heritage is hate, pure and simple. I hope at sometime in the future we can all come together and properly identify who our heroes are, and begin to recognize that he is not one of them.”
‘What is a Woman’ Act codifying sex-based terminology into law passes in Alabama House
The Alabama House passed a bill defining sex-based terminology as man, woman, boy, girl, father, mother, male and female.
House Bill 111, sponsored by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, will apply when state law classifies individuals based on sex or otherwise mentions individuals as being male or female, men or women or boys and girls. DuBose shared that a companion of this bill has passed out of the Senate.
The bill states that men and women are legally equal but not physically the same. The state has an important interest in preventing unjust sex discrimination and in maintaining safety for both sexes. Furthermore, it specifies that there are two sexes which are male and female, and the term “sex” is objective and fixed.
The bill says its purpose “is to bring clarity, certainty and uniformity to the laws of Alabama regarding sex discrimination, equality of sexes and the benefits or services provided to men and
women.”
If passed, the bill will become effective on Oct. 1, 2024.
DUI manslaughter bill advances in Alabama House
The Alabama House passed House Bill 363, sponsored by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, which will clarify when a person commits murder and manslaughter while driving under the influence.
Faulkner expressed his personal connection to this bill as a habitual drunk driver killed four people, two of whom were family friends.
“That driver should not have been out on the road. But our laws need clarifying on what you can be charged with when you have had DUI offenses,” he said.
Faulkner shared that the act will be known as the Daryl and Jeanna Speegle and Maggie and Christie Lowe Act.
This bill says a person commits the crime of murder if he or she operates a motor vehicle and causes the death of another person if they have one or more prior driving under the influence convictions and have a blood alcohol content equal or greater than 0.15. Furthermore, HB363 provides that a person commits the crime of manslaughter if he or she operates a motor vehicle or vessel and causes the death of another person with the vehicle or vessel.
Murder is a Class A felony and manslaughter is a Class B felony.
Faulkner said that he has worked with district attorneys on the bill.
“The DAs believe it will bring clarity to our law on when you can prosecute for murder and when you can prosecute for manslaughter when it’s a DUI situation,” he said.
House passes bill to expand authority of judges over those with mental illness and substance use disorders
Members of the Alabama House voted 100-1 Thursday to adopt a bill that would grant probate judges the authority to involuntarily commit an individual who suffers from both a substance use disorder and mental illness.
Sponsored by Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster, the bill is an effort to address the state’s ongoing mental health crisis, a crisis that has led members of law enforcement from across the state to plead with lawmakers to provide more beds for mental health treatment. Escambia County Sheriff Heath Jackson has previously told lawmakers that far too often, individuals going through a mental health crisis – many of whom often suffer from substance use disorders – are placed on a weeks or months’-long waiting list to receive mental health treatment.
Existing law permits probate judges to involuntarily commit individuals who exhibit a real or present danger to themselves or others, but makes no mention of substance use disorders. Under Bedsole’s proposal, probate judges could consider substance use disorders that co-occur with mental illness as a rationale for having an individual involuntarily committed.
“Members, I bring a bill before you today that is a continual work in progress as we continue to try to get a handle on and address the mental health issues in our state; this bill is probably one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever brought,” Bedsole said on the House floor. “Far too often, we see drug use as a co-occurring piece of those who are dealing with mental health crises. This bill will deal with that by adding definitions to co-occurring substance use disorder.”
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, called the proposal a “great bill,” and said that while there was much work to be done in improving mental health resources in the state, the bill was a move in the right direction.
“Our infrastructure, as currently in place, is probably one of the worst infrastructures in terms of dealing with individuals with mental illnesses in the country; the waiting list is thousands of people long as you know, and we’re probably ranked 49th or 50th in terms of access to doctors and others to provide mental health care,” England said.
The bill ultimately passed in the House with a vote of 100-1, with Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham, being the lone dissenting vote. A Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, has already passed that chamber.