SEXUAL ASSAULT BILLS: The Maryland Senate will consider two bills aimed at improving the prosecution of rape cases, reports Pamela Wood for the Sun. The Senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee approved a bill Thursday that would change the legal definition of rape so that proving the victim resisted would no longer be required. The committee also approved a bill that sets standards for how long police departments must hold on to rape kits.
Two lawmakers clashed last week over accusations that the vice chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee stole a bill from another senator, Bryan Sears reports for the Daily Record. The issue came to a head on Tuesday during an uncomfortable hearing in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on Senate Bills 505 and 585, sponsored by Sens. Delores G. Kelley and Ron Young. The bills, which are identical, extend the statute of limitations in which a victim of sexual abuse has to sue their abuser from the age of 25 to 38.
