House Bill 679, sponsored by Freeman, amends various sections of the Tennessee Code Annotated related to sexual assault. One significant change is the increase in the compensation amount for forensic medical examinations from "one thousand dollars ($1,000)" to "two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500)." Additionally, the bill revises the timeline for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to perform serology or DNA analysis on sexual assault evidence collection kits, mandating that this analysis be completed within one hundred twenty (120) days of receipt. If the TBI cannot meet this deadline, they are required to flag the kit in their electronic tracking system and provide a written explanation to the submitting law enforcement agency.

Furthermore, the bill clarifies that a flagged sexual assault evidence collection kit must be analyzed within a reasonable time thereafter and ensures that the inability to perform the analysis within the specified timeframe does not affect the admissibility of the evidence obtained from the kit. The act is set to take effect on July 1, 2025, with the new compensation and analysis provisions applying to cases and kits received on or after that date.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 29-13-118(d), 29-13-118, 38-6-113