2017 Human Trafficking Statutes

Below is a list of new statutes that have been added:  PC 236.23 is a new affirmative defense available to victims of human trafficking.  Defendant/victim is allowed to show that the charged crime was committed as a direct result of being a trafficking victim and while in reasonable fear of harm.
PC 236.14 Allows a person arrested or convicted of any nonviolent crime, committed while he or she was a trafficking victim, to apply to the court to vacate the conviction and seal/destroy records of the arrest.  Unlike an expungement, getting a conviction vacated effectively means that the conviction never occurred. (SB 823 Analysis)
PC 647(b)(5) and PC 653.22(a)(2) make the crimes of solicitation and loitering,  with intent to commit prostitution, inapplicable to children younger than 18. (SB 1322)
SB 1129 (Monning D-Carmel) deletes the 45 and 90 day mandatory minimum jail terms imposed for engaging in prostitution with a prior(s) under PC 647.  Legislative Changes To Sex Offense Statutes:
Proposition 47 removed the ability to charge the possession of Rohypnol, GHB and ketamine-commonly known as “date rape” drugs as a felony.  As a result, SB 1182 added:  Penal Code 11350.5 and 11377.5 to make possession of these “date rape” drugs with the intent to commit a sex crime, a felony, punishable by sixteen months, two years or three years local prison.
Penal Code 799 eliminates the statute of limitations for the prosecution of rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation, and sexual penetration when committed under certain circumstances.  “Several news outlets have suggested that the allegations against Bill Cosby may have influenced the introduction of SB 813 given that the majority of Cosby’s accusers (the total is about 60) have not been able to press charges against him because of the statute of limitations.”

Inspired by a Superior Court judge’s decision not to sentence a Stanford University student to prison in a high-profile case, Penal Code 1203.065 prohibits a court, except in unusual cases, from granting probation or suspending the execution or imposition of a sentence if a person is convicted of rape, sodomy, penetration with a foreign object, or oral copulation if the victim was either unconscious or incapable of giving consent due to intoxication.