Many new laws come into effect in Indiana on July 1st. Here are six new laws that come into effect in Indiana on Wednesday that you may not have heard of.
Sawed-off shotguns, also known as short-barreled shotguns, will be legal in Indiana. The General Assembly approved the bill to bring state law more in line with current federal law. It will be legal to manufacture, sell or own one beginning in July. If a shotgun has a barrel less than 18 inches long, it is considered sawed-off. It will still be illegal to saw your own shotgun after July 1.
The next new law is the death penalty aggravator. Murderers who decapitated or attempted to decapitate the victim, while the victim was alive will give the state the opportunity to seek the death penalty. Indiana already has a lot of qualifications to seek the death penalty, including burning or torturing victims, if you were hired to kill the victim, or if the victim was a member of law enforcement. This just adds one more possible circumstance.
The next new law states that the state can’t levy a tax on Internet access. This doesn’t mean that all Internet is now free. Your Internet service provider can still charge you for their services. It just means it would stay out of the government’s hands, keeping a lot of issues with Internet freedom from even appearing. This is most likely a response to a similar federal bill that passed in the House of Representatives in June.
This new law will give a person protection from owing money if they broke into a car to save a child. Meant mainly for children left in hot cars during the summer, a person who damages a vehicle in an attempt to rescue a child in real damage won’t have to pay any money to the owner of the car for the damage.
The new law requires the rescuer to call 911 either before or immediately after getting the child out of the car and stay with the child after removing them from the car.
A new law allowing citizens to report against a public officer will protect their identity. This law protects against people when they report “malfeasance, misfeasance, or nonfeasance” against a public officer. If you report against a public officer for doing something they shouldn’t, your identity would be anonymous unless a court would order your name disclosed.
“Jenny’s Law,” named after Jenny Wendt who couldn’t press charges after a man confessed to raping her since the statute of limitations had already passed will go into effect on Wednesday.
The law will allow for the prosecution in rape cases in a number of situations, including: when the suspect is found through DNA analysis, when a recording is found that gives enough evidence to charge a suspect and when a person confesses to the act.
