OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 486 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 486’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Referred by the House Rules and Reference Committee
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Carruthers and Brent
Effective Date:
Shalanda Plowden, Research Analyst
SUMMARY
 Expands the offense of “aggravated murder” to also prohibit purposely causing the
death of another when the victim was a family or household member of the offender
and the offender has previously been convicted of felony domestic violence or a felony
offense of violence that resulted in serious physical harm against that family or
household member.
 Requires a court setting bail in a criminal case or determining a felony or misdemeanor
sentence to consider the results of any lethality assessment screening conducted in the
case by law enforcement if any such results are available, as required under the bill.
 Expands the definition of “family or household member” for the purpose of petitioning
for a domestic violence civil protection order, juvenile court protection order, or anti-
stalking civil protection order to include a child whose guardian or custodian is a spouse,
person living as a spouse, or former spouse of the respondent and who is residing with
or has resided with the respondent.
 Creates a new type of protection order described as an “emergency protection order”
that may be obtained by a law enforcement officer, on behalf of and with the consent of
a victim of domestic violence, at any time when the court is not available for regular
business.
 Requires each agency, instrumentality, and political subdivision to:
 Identify local and regional domestic violence advocacy services to which individuals
experiencing domestic violence or violation of a protection order and determined to
be high risk may be referred; and
 Adopt written policies and procedures for the peace officers to follow in screening
alleged incidents of domestic violence and alleged incidents of violating a protection
order for referral to local or regional domestic violence advocacy services.
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 Expands the types of domestic violence-related training that must be included in peace
officer biennial professional training.
 Requires the Attorney General to adopt rules to require that peace officer basic training
include training on evidence-based lethality assessment screening tools.
 Expands existing civil immunity related to domestic violence arrests and seizures by
peace officers so that it also applies to create immunity related to civil actions against a
state officer or employee under the Court of Claims Law.
 Creates the Domestic Violence Prosecution Study Committee.
 Encourages prosecuting attorneys, in domestic violence-related cases, to consider the
totality of the circumstances, review all evidence in the case, and resist seeking
voluntary dismissal or no contest based solely on the victim’s wishes, unless justice
demands otherwise.
 Requires the Superintendent and Troopers of the Ohio State Highway Patrol to arrest
and detain, until a warrant can be obtained, a person found violating state law within
the limits of the Superintendent’s or Trooper’s territorial jurisdiction.
 Requests the Supreme Court to review the Ohio Evidence Rules to consider how the
Rules may better aid victims of domestic violence without diminishing the fundamental
fairness to alleged perpetrators of domestic violence.
 Names the bill “Aisha’s Law.”
 Makes an appropriation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Aisha’s Law ...................................................................................................................................... 3
Aggravated murder ......................................................................................................................... 3
New offense circumstances ........................................................................................................ 3
Background – capital sentencing law .......................................................................................... 4
Setting bail and sentencing in criminal cases ................................................................................. 5
Domestic violence civil protection orders ...................................................................................... 5
Family or household member ..................................................................................................... 6
Additional information in the petition ........................................................................................ 6
Juvenile court protection orders and civil anti-stalking and sexually oriented offense-related
protection orders ............................................................................................................................ 6
Emergency protection orders ......................................................................................................... 7
Form of the request .................................................................................................................... 7
Issuance or denial of an emergency protection order ................................................................ 7
Content of an emergency protection order ................................................................................ 8
Communicating the terms of the order ...................................................................................... 8
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Expiration of the order ................................................................................................................ 8
Advising victims of the availability of emergency protection orders ......................................... 9
Violating the order ...................................................................................................................... 9
Procedures for high risk domestic violence victims ....................................................................... 9
Domestic violence law enforcement training ............................................................................... 10
Biennial professional training.................................................................................................... 10
Local law enforcement policies ................................................................................................. 11
Domestic violence training ........................................................................................................ 12
Peace officer civil immunity .......................................................................................................... 12
Domestic Violence Prosecution Study Committee ....................................................................... 13
Membership .............................................................................................................................. 13
Timing ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Prosecution conduct ..................................................................................................................... 13
Evidence rules ............................................................................................................................... 14
State Highway Patrol arrest authority .......................................................................................... 14
Technical changes ......................................................................................................................... 14
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Aisha’s Law
The bill is entitled “Aisha’s Law.”1
Aggravated murder
New offense circumstances
The bill expands the offense of “aggravated murder” to also prohibit, in addition to the
currently prohibited conduct, purposely causing the death of another under certain domestic
violence circumstances. Under the bill’s new prohibition, a person commits aggravated murder
if the person purposely causes the death of another when the victim was a family or household
member of the offender, and the offender has previously been convicted of domestic violence
when the offense was a felony and resulted in serious physical harm or a felony offense of
violence resulting in serious physical harm against that family or household member. Under
existing law, unchanged by the bill, aggravated murder is punishable by a sentence of death or
life imprisonment, determined under special sentencing provisions described below in
“Background – capital sentencing law.”2 The bill does not change any of the current
prohibitions under the offense of aggravated murder.
1 Section 5.
2 R.C. 2903.01(G).
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For purposes of the expanded aggravated murder offense:3
 “Family or household member” means:
 Any of the following who is residing with or has resided with the offender:
 A spouse, person living as a spouse, or former spouse of the offender;4
 A parent, a foster parent, or a child of the respondent, or another person related
by consanguinity or affinity to the offender;
 A parent or a child of a spouse, person living as a spouse, or former spouse of the
offender, or another person related by consanguinity or affinity to a spouse,
person living as a spouse, or former spouse of the offender;
 A child whose guardian or custodian is a spouse, person living as a spouse, or
former spouse of the offender.
 The natural parent of any child of whom the respondent is the other natural parent
or is the putative other natural parent.
 “Person living as a spouse” means a person who is living or has lived with the offender
in a common law relationship, who otherwise is cohabiting with the offender, or who
otherwise has cohabited with the offender within five years prior to the date of the
alleged occurrence of the act in question;
 A “child” is a person under 18 years old;
 A “custodian” is an individual with legal custody of a child; and
 A “guardian” is an individual granted authority by a probate court to exercise parental
rights over a child to the extent provided in the court’s order and subject to the residual
parental rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the child’s parents.
Background – capital sentencing law
Under existing law, unchanged by the bill, the only situations in which a person may face
a sentence of death are when the person is convicted of the offense of “aggravated murder,” or
the offense of “terrorism” when the most serious offense comprising the terrorism is
aggravated murder, and of a specification of an “aggravating circumstance.”5 If a person is
convicted of the offense but no aggravating circumstance specification, the court must
sentence the person to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after serving 20 years of
imprisonment or a special type of sentence of life imprisonment under the Sexually Violent
3 R.C. 2903.01(I)(5), (6), and (7), by reference to R.C. 3109.51, not in the bill and 3113.31.
4 References to “respondent” in the definition result from the definition’s location within another
statute and should probably be to “defendant” to reflect the criminal nature of the proceedings.
5 R.C. 2929.02 and 2909.24, not in the bill.
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Predator Law.6 If a person is convicted of the offense and one or more aggravating
circumstance specifications, the trial jury and trial judge or, if the person was not tried by a jury,
the three-judge panel that tried the case conducts a sentencing hearing to determine the
sentence to impose on the person. If the person was tried by a jury, the person may be
sentenced to death only if the trial jury determines at the hearing in accordance with specified
procedures that the aggravating circumstances the person was convicted of committing
outweigh all mitigating factors in the case and recommends a sentence of death and the trial
judge makes the same determination at a separate hearing. If the trial jury does not make that
determination and recommend a sentence of death, the trial judge may not impose a sentence
of death. If the person was tried by a three-judge panel, the person may be sentenced to death
only if the panel determines at the hearing in accordance with specified procedures that the
aggravating circumstances the person was convicted of committing outweigh all mitigating
factors in the case. If the trial jury and trial judge, or the three-judge panel, does not sentence
the person to death, it must sentence the person to life imprisonment without parole, life
imprisonment with parole eligibility after serving 30 full years of imprisonment, life
imprisonment with parole eligibility after serving 25 full years of imprisonment, or a special
type of sentence of life imprisonment under the Sexually Violent Predator Law.7
Setting bail and sentencing in criminal cases
Existing statutory provisions address the setting of bail in criminal cases 8 (other bail-
related provisions are located in Criminal Rule 46) and the procedures to be followed in
sentencing a person convicted of a criminal offense.9 The bill requires a court setting bail in a
criminal case or determining a felony or misdemeanor sentence to consider the results of any
lethality assessment screening conducted in the case by law enforcement if any such results are
available, as required under “Local law enforcement policies,” below.10
Domestic violence civil protection orders
Existing law provides a mechanism for the issuance of a civil protection order against a
respondent for the protection of a person who is a family or household member of the
respondent or who is a person with whom the respondent is or was in a dating relationship,
and against whom the respondent engaged in domestic violence (a currently defined term). A
person may seek relief under the mechanism on the person’s own behalf, or any parent or
adult household member may seek relief under the mechanism on behalf of any other family or
household member.11
6 R.C. 2929.022(B).
7 R.C. 2929.02, 2929.03, and 2929.04, not in the bill.
8 R.C. 2937.23.
9 R.C. 2929.11 to 2929.28, not in the bill except for R.C. 2929.12 and 2929.22.
10 R.C. 2937.23(A)(3), 2929.12(G), and 2929.22(B)(1)(h).
11 R.C. 3113.31.
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Family or household member
The bill expands the definition of “family or household member” that applies under the
mechanism to also include, in addition to the persons currently covered under the definition, a
child whose guardian or custodian is a spouse, person living as a spouse, or former spouse of
the respondent and who is residing with or has resided with the respondent. As a result, a
guardian or custodian of such a child who is a parent or adult household member may petition
for a domestic violence civil protection order on behalf of such a child.12
For purposes of this provision, a child is a person under 18 years old, a custodian is an
individual with legal custody of a child, and a guardian is an individual granted authority by a
probate court to exercise parental rights over a child to the extent provided in the court’s order
and subject to the residual parental rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the child’s
parents.13
Additional information in the petition
The bill also allows the petitioner for a domestic violence civ