Joint Order Authorizing the Establishment of the Criminal Code Revision Commission

ORDERED, the House concurring, that by March 1, 2014, the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, after consultation with the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary and the Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs, shall submit legislation to the Second Regular Session of the 126th Legislature establishing the Criminal Code Revision Commission, for the purpose of reviewing, revising, unifying, recodifying and consolidating Maine's criminal laws, including, but not limited to, the Maine Criminal Code. The commission shall:

1. Examine all sections of the Maine Criminal Code and all criminal statutes not contained in the Maine Criminal Code;

2. Evaluate the operation of the Maine Criminal Code in an effort to revise the Maine Criminal Code as necessary to ensure clarity, consistency, generalization in defining prohibited conduct, proportionality of the penalties and punishments to the offense and equity in sentencing. The commission shall recommend amendments to the Maine Criminal Code based on the evaluation and amendments to those Maine criminal statutes not contained in the Maine Criminal Code; and

3. Examine any other aspects of Maine's criminal laws, including substantive, procedural and administrative matters, that the commission determines relevant.

The legislation must provide that the Criminal Code Revision Commission may accept federal and other grants to carry out its responsibilities.