HF 471 – Attorneys’ Fees in Termination of Parental Rights Appellate Proceedings
HF 527 – DNA from Aggravated Misdemeanants
FLOOR ACTION:
HF 471 confirms that parents are entitled to counsel if their parental rights are being or have been terminated. Under current law, if the person is indigent, the person petitioning for termination of parental rights is responsible for paying the attorney’s fees for the parent whose rights are being terminated. This bill specifies that upon any appeal of a district court’s order to terminate parental rights when the parent whose rights have been terminated is indigent, the petitioning individual will not be required to pay the attorney’s fees for the parent whose rights have been terminated. The Public Defender will pay reasonable attorney fees from the indigent defense fund. The Senate adopted an amendment, which says that a parent convicted of a sex offense against a minor is not entitled to be granted visitation rights with his or her children while the parent is incarcerated for the sex offense committed against a minor. This relates to dissolution of marriage and custody proceedings in Chapter 598. The amendment does not prohibit a custodial parent from taking a child to visit his or her incarcerated parent. [5/1: 50-0]
HF 527, as amended by the Senate, requires a person to submit a DNA sample for profiling if they have been convicted of an aggravated misdemeanor. The House-passed version included the same requirement for persons who received a deferred judgment for an aggravated misdemeanor. Under the bill, juveniles and persons convicted of aggravated misdemeanors that are traffic offenses under Chapter 321 would not be required to provide DNA samples. In addition, the Senate adopted an amendment to exclude persons convicted of aggravated misdemeanors relating to hazardous waste offenses in 716B, agricultural production in 717A, and gaming and betting in 725.7. Although certain OWI convictions are excluded, anyone receiving three OWI revocations (administrative) within a 12-year period would be required to provide a DNA sample. The amendment clarifies that DNA samples will only be required of persons who are convicted on or after the effective date of the bill. [5/1: 29-20 (Anderson, Bertrand, Bolkcom, Chelgren, Dix, Dvorsky, Feenstra, Greiner, Guth, Horn, Houser, Johnson, Mathis, McCoy, Quirmbach, Rozenboom, Segebart, Sinclair, Smith, Taylor “no”; Sorenson excused)]