The Alabama Legislature

This act amends Sections 12-21-148, 13A-6-43, 13A-6-44, 13A-6-68, 13A-6-111, 13A-6-124, 13A-6-243, 15-20A-5, 15-20A-6, 15-20A-44, 15-25-31, and 26-14-3, Code of Alabama 1975, to: (1) to remove the affirmative defense to kidnapping in the first degree of safely releasing the victim uninjured; (2) add the use or intended use of deception or physical or deadly force to the elements of kidnapping in the second degree and revise the affirmative defense thereto to apply only if the actor's purpose is to assume control of the other person; (3) remove the exception of arousing one's spouse from the crime of indecent exposure and provide the penalty therefor is a Class C felony if the victim is under 12 years old; (4) provide that a person is guilty of transmitting obscene material to a child by electronic means if the actor believes the transmittee is a child regardless of whether undercover law enforcement is involved; (5) provide a person is guilty of the crime of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act if the actor believes the person with which they are meeting is a child; (6) to add children between the ages of 12 and 16 when the child is two or more years younger than the actor to those against which the crime of directing a child to engage in sexual intercourse or sodomy and directing a child to engage in sexual contact may be committed; (7) further define the term "sex offense" to include voyeurism in the first degree; (8) increase the age at which out-of-court statements made by victims or witnesses who are children for crimes involving physical, violent, or sexual offenses are admissible in court from under 12 years old to under 18 years old; (9) establish the crime of inpatient custodial sexual misconduct when a person who is an employee solicits or engages in sexual conduct with a person who is a patient at an inpatient substance use treatment facility or a mental health facility, a violation of which is a Class C felony; (10) further provide for the persons that must orally and subsequently submit a written report immediately upon knowing or suspecting a child is the victim of child abuse or neglect circumstances to a law enforcement official or the Department of Human Resources; (11) provide that a subsequent violation of an employer punishing an employee for reporting suspected child abuse or neglect is a Class C felony; and (12) require that a misdemeanor prosecution under such a report of suspected child abuse or neglect must commence within 12 months after being reported and a felony prosecution must commence within five years after being reported.