House votes to tighten penalties on tampering with capital felony evidence

Image via AP.

On Thursday, the House approved legislation by a 111-1 vote that would ramp up penalties for evidence tampering in certain felony cases.

HB 287, introduced by Rep. Sam Garrison of Clay County, would make tampering with or fabricating evidence a second-degree felony if done in a criminal trial, proceeding or investigation relating to capital felonies. Only Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner of St. Petersburg voted against the measure Thursday.

If the bill is signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, it takes effect Oct. 1.

This legislation could bring a significant change to criminal investigations in capital felony cases.

Currently, it’s a third-degree felony to tamper with evidence in all cases, and the law does not distinguish between tampering with evidence in murder and other capital felony cases and lesser offenses, such as possession of marijuana.

The bill would affect capital crimes specifically, bringing the evidence-tampering statute in line with the perjury statute, closing what former prosecutor Garrison has called a “longstanding loophole” in the law.

Expectations are that enhanced penalties would lead to more severe penalties on the charge.

A staff analysis of a similar bill filed for the 2021 Session asserted a potential “positive indeterminate impact on prison beds by increasing the felony degrees and penalties for tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in specified cases.”

Dozens of inmates are sentenced every year for tampering with evidence already. In fiscal year 2019-20, 57 inmates were convicted on that charge, with 68 convicted of evidence tampering the previous year.

The bill is close to the finish line in the Senate as well. Clay County Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley is carrying the legislation there, where it is equally uncontroversial.

Evidence tampering made headlines in Northeast Florida last year after the murder of a teenage girl in St. Johns County.

The suspect’s mother was charged with attempting to scrub the murder victim’s blood out of her son’s jeans, and despite the seriousness of the crime, only a third-degree felony charge is being pursued.