A law named after a St. Augustine murder victim will go into effect Saturday. Carl’s Law increases penalties when crime victims have disabilities. It’s named for Carl Starke, who had autism.
As our partner News 4 Jax first reported, a group of Jacksonville teens targeted Starke during a crime spree and shot him outside his condominium in August of 2015.
Carl’s Law is among 26 that take effect this weekend after being crafted during the 2016 legislative session.
Another new law prohibits prosecution of minors for prostitution and makes it clear that engaging a child in prostitution is human trafficking. The measure also increases the penalty for renting space for prostitution.
Other laws increase criminal penalties for:
- Helping someone escape house arrest
- Selling or possessing more than one food-stamp EBT card
- Threatening the lives of judges, police officers, fire fighters, state attorneys and their family members
- Possessing credit card info copied from gas station pumps with machines called skimmers.
And election supervisors are getting pay bumps averaging about $19,000, which keeps their salaries in line with those of property appraisers and other county officials.
