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SENATE BILL 1385 (BURTON– 2004)

CHAPTER 609, STATUTES OF 2004, SB 1385

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Evidence Code section 1107 and Penal Code section 1473 were amended in 2004 following legislative approval of Senate Bill 1385, which affected these two sections only.  (See Exhibit #1f, page 1)  Senate Bill 1385 was introduced on February 18, 2004 by Senator John Burton at the request of an organization known as “Free Battered Women.”  (See Exhibits #1a and #5, page 1)

Senate Bill 1385 was assigned to the Senate Committee on Public Safety and the Assembly Committee on Public Safety where policy issues raised by the bill were considered.  (See Exhibits #3 and #6)  Four amendments were made to the measure as it was considered by the Legislature.  (See Exhibits #1b through #1e and #2)  Subsequent to legislative approval, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1385 on September 20, 2004, and it was recorded by the Secretary of State on that day as Chapter 609 of the Statutes of 2004.  (See Exhibits #1f and #2)

The Unfinished Business analysis of the bill as last amended that was produced by the Office of Senate Floor Analyses described the bill as follows:

…This bill allows a writ of habeas corpus in specified domestic violence cases to be brought on offense that occurred prior to August 26, 1996, rather than January 1, 1992.  The bill also replaces the phrase “battered women’s syndrome” with “intimate partner battering and its effects.”
(See Exhibit #8b, page 1)