Senate Bill No. 626

(By Senator Miller)

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[Introduced March 25, 2013; referred to the Committee on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §61-10-24, relating to creating a misdemeanor offense of law-enforcement or emergency services personnel taking pictures of certain victims of crime or accident for personal use; and establishing penalties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §61-10-24, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 10. CRIMES AGAINST PUBLIC POLICY.

§61-10-24. Creation, publishing for own use by law-enforcement or emergency services personnel, of visual portrayal of certain victims.

    (a) It is unlawful for any law-enforcement or emergency services personnel to create a visual portrayal or publish a visual portrayal of a person who is a deceased accident or crime victim, for his or her personal purposes or use.

    (b) Nothing in this section limits the actions of a law-enforcement or emergency services worker in creating or publishing visual portrayals of accident or crime victims while acting in his or her official capacity.

    (c) As used in this section, “visual portrayal” means a photograph or motion picture, either film or digital.

    (d) Any person who violates the provisions of subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than $100 or more than $500.

    NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a misdemeanor offense of law-enforcement or emergency services personnel creating or publishing for his or her own personal use, a photo or motion picture of a deceased accident or crime victim.

     This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.