All Roll Calls
Yes: 149 • No: 37
FloridaSB 18042025SenateWALLET
Capital Human Trafficking of Vulnerable Persons for Sexual Exploitation
Sponsored By: Jonathan Martin (Republican)
Signed by Governor
AppropriationCriminal JusticeAppropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil JusticeFiscal PolicyHouse Calendar
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
13 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 9 costs, 1 mixed.
Death penalty rules for trafficking
For covered trafficking crimes committed on or after October 1, 2025, the law creates a separate sentencing process. Death requires at least two aggravating factors proved beyond a reasonable doubt; when jury sentencing applies, the jury must agree unanimously on those factors, and at least eight jurors must recommend death. Prosecutors must file notice within 45 days after arraignment. If the court misses its 30-day deadline for a death-sentence order, the sentence is life without parole. The State can appeal when a court fails to follow the required process. The law excludes this trafficking offense from the general death-sentencing process and excludes it from the stated intellectual-disability procedures; other qualifying capital cases have a judge-only final hearing on intellectual disability.
Compensation access for trafficking survivors
A person who engaged in prostitution because of a qualifying trafficking offense can seek victim compensation despite the general rule against claims tied to unlawful activity. The covered offenses now include the new capital trafficking crime. The law does not set a new payment amount.
One less registration requirement
A person who registers as a sexual offender under the listed state rules does not also have to register separately as a convicted felon. The exemption applies when the person has completed the required sexual-offender registration.
Police check supervision during trafficking cases
When state or local police investigate or arrest someone for the covered trafficking offense, an attempt, solicitation, or conspiracy, they must contact the Department of Corrections. The contact checks whether the person is on probation, community control, parole, conditional release, or control release.
$151 court cost for covered offenses
A person who pleads guilty or no contest to, or is found guilty of, an offense under the sexual-offender registration law must pay a $151 court cost. The cost applies even when the court withholds adjudication.
Broader sex offender registration and notice
The new trafficking offense can qualify a person for sexual-offender registration or sexual-predator status when the existing legal criteria are met. Those criteria include applicable offense, conviction, and date rules. Courts cannot exempt people who meet sexual-offender criteria from classification, registration, or public-notice requirements. Law enforcement must inform the public when a career offender designated as a sexual predator is present.
Electronic monitoring for predator releasees
An inmate found to be a sexual predator must leave prison under supervision at the applicable release date. A releasee designated as a sexual predator must also be electronically monitored throughout supervision.
Fewer probation shortcuts for offenders
People serving probation or community control for specified felonies committed on or after October 1, 2017, cannot receive administrative probation. People supervised for specified felonies, or classified as violent felony offenders of special concern, also cannot get a shorter supervision term through the graduated-incentives system.
Fewer ways to seal criminal records
Records involving specified offenses used for sexual-predator or sexual-offender registration cannot receive a certificate for expunction or sealing, even when that offense alone would not require registration. The law also excludes certain forcible-felony and listed-offense records from automatic sealing. Other eligibility rules and exclusions continue to apply.
Longer penalties for child abduction
Kidnapping a child younger than 13 becomes a life felony when the offender also commits the covered trafficking offense during the kidnapping. False imprisonment of a child younger than 13 becomes a first-degree felony, punishable by up to life in prison, when the offender commits that trafficking offense during the crime. Courts can enter separate judgments and sentences for the trafficking offense and the kidnapping or false-imprisonment offense.
New evidence and exam rules
In covered trafficking cases, a court can admit a recorded confession or admission without first requiring the State to prove that the crime occurred. The court must hold a hearing outside the jury’s presence and find the statement trustworthy. An existing exception to the usual consent rule for pelvic exams also covers exams administered during investigations of the new trafficking offense.
Required HIV tests after trafficking convictions
A court must order HIV testing for a person convicted of, or pleading guilty or no contest to, a covered trafficking offense involving the transmission of body fluids. Testing is not required if the person already had qualifying testing. The results cannot be used in criminal proceedings arising from the alleged offense.
Stricter release and bail rules
Some people accused of violating supervision must remain in custody while the case is decided; this rule does not cover failures to pay costs, fines, or restitution. A person required to register as a sexual offender or predator cannot get bail before the first court appearance, except when the only charge is a chapter 316 misdemeanor. Some adults found guilty of specified registration offenses involving a minor cannot get bail while seeking review or appealing. Certain releasees with qualifying crimes against people under 18 also face limits on visits to schools, child care centers, parks, and playgrounds without approval, with exceptions for religious services and picking up or dropping off their child or grandchild. Those location rules cover qualifying crimes committed on or after May 26, 2010, and have stated pardon, set-aside, and registration-removal exceptions.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Jonathan Martin
Republican • Senate
Cosponsors
Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice
Affiliation unavailable
Fiscal Policy
Affiliation unavailable
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 4/30/2025
House Floor Vote
Yes: 95 • No: 17
Senate vote • 4/28/2025
Senate Floor Vote
Yes: 27 • No: 11
Senate vote • 4/22/2025
Fiscal Policy Vote
Yes: 15 • No: 4
Senate vote • 4/15/2025
Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice Vote
Yes: 5 • No: 4
Senate vote • 4/1/2025
Criminal Justice Vote
Yes: 7 • No: 1
Actions Timeline
Chapter No. 2025-156
6/23/2025Approved by Governor
6/19/2025Signed by Officers and presented to Governor
6/18/2025Ordered enrolled
4/30/2025SenateCS passed; YEAS 95, NAYS 17
4/30/2025HouseRead 3rd time
4/30/2025HouseAdded to Third Reading Calendar
4/30/2025HousePlaced on 3rd reading
4/30/2025HouseRead 2nd time
4/30/2025House1st Reading (Engrossed 1)
4/29/2025HouseBill added to Special Order Calendar (4/30/2025)
4/29/2025HouseBill referred to House Calendar
4/29/2025HouseIn Messages
4/28/2025HouseCS passed as amended; YEAS 27 NAYS 11 -SJ 597
4/28/2025SenateRead 3rd time -SJ 597
4/28/2025SenateAmendment(s) adopted (658524) -SJ 597
4/28/2025SenateRead 2nd time -SJ 595
4/28/2025SenateCS/CS by Fiscal Policy read 1st time
4/24/2025SenatePlaced on Special Order Calendar, 04/28/25
4/23/2025SenatePlaced on Calendar, on 2nd reading
4/23/2025SenatePending reference review -under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
4/23/2025SenateCS/CS by- Fiscal Policy; YEAS 15 NAYS 4
4/22/2025SenateCS by Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice read 1st time
4/22/2025SenateOn Committee agenda-- Fiscal Policy, 04/22/25, 11:00 am, 412 Knott Building
4/17/2025SenateNow in Fiscal Policy
4/17/2025Senate
Bill Text
er
10/1/2025
e1
4/28/2025
c2
4/23/2025
c1
4/17/2025
Filed
2/28/2025