Cold case legislation would ease calls for reinvestigations of unsolved murders

Families of unsolved murder victims could gain a new tool in seeking answers through proposed legislation by a pair of South Florida lawmakers.

Tamarac Sen. Rosalind Osgood and Miami Gardens Rep. Christopher Benjamin have filed twin bills (SB 350/HB 837) to make it easier for residents to ask police to reinvestigate homicide cold cases.

The murder in question must have occurred at least five years before, and the person requesting another look into the case must be an immediate family member, in-law or legal guardian of the victim.

The measure, titled the “Decker-Backmann Act,” is named for Marilyn Decker, whose 1987 murder in Davie remains a mystery, and a Jacksonville man named Clifford Backmann who was robbed and killed by an unknown assailant in 2009.

Backmann’s son, Ryan Backmann, has since created Project: Cold Case to help people like himself share tips, support each other and advocate for policy changes.

He told First Coast News last month that he worked with Osgood and Benjamin, both Democrats, on their legislation.

According to Project: Cold Case, there are nearly 20,000 unsolved murders in Florida today.

SB 350 and HB 837 would require all law enforcement agencies in the state to review an unsolved murder within their jurisdiction upon receiving a written application from a victim’s family member. The review would then determine if a full reinvestigation of the case could identify new leads or a likely perpetrator.

Any such review would have to include looking into whether investigative procedures were either absent or missed in a prior investigation. Agencies would also have to assess which witnesses should be interviewed or re-interviewed and examine physical evidence to determine whether all appropriate testing was performed initially and if additional tests might create new leads.

If a reinvestigation is merited, the agency must conduct one, but not solely by a person who previously investigated the murder. And reinvestigations that result in no likely suspects may not be done again for five years unless “materially significant evidence is discovered.”

If passed, the measure would go into effect July 1, 2025, by which time each law enforcement agency in the state must have trained its employees and officers to properly carry out cold case reviews and reinvestigations.

Under the legislation, cold case reviews may take no longer than 18 months from the date of a request, inclusive of an initial one-year review period, plus one optional six-month extension.

By Oct. 1, 2025, and every quarter after, each police agency in the state would have to report all data relevant to cold case reviews to Florida International University’s Global Forensic and Justice Center, which would establish and maintain a searchable case-tracking system and website.

SB 474 and HB 529 both await a first committee hearing.