SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)’s Senate Bill 467 passed the Senate today with a bipartisan vote of 30-3. SB 467, the End Wrongful Convictions Act, would amend the standards used for evaluating expert testimony and forensics in court pre- and post-conviction. Faulty forensic and scientific evidence, provided by expert witnesses,is the second most common reason that individuals are wrongfully convicted. Today, courts have discretion over which expert testimony is admissible.
Press Releases
SACRAMENTO - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 866, the Teens Choose Vaccines Act. SB 866 allows young people 12 years and older to get vaccinated without parental consent. SB 866 applies to all vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that meet the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SACRAMENTO - Three of Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) bills, including legislation to require corporations to report carbon emissions, streamline solar permitting, and end wrongful convictions based on faulty expert witness testimony, will be taken up for a full Senate vote after passing the Senate Appropriation Committee.
The deadline for the Senate to approve these bills is January 31.
SACRAMENTO - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 858 and Senate Bill 853 to improve patient access to quality health care. SB 858, the Health Plan Accountability Act, updates and increases penalties for health plans that violate state law in denying or delaying insurance coverage. SB 853, the Medication Access Act, requires health plans to cover medications through the duration of any appeals of a denial of insurance coverage.
SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)’s Senate Bill 467 passed the Senate Public Safety Committee today with a bipartisan, unanimous vote. SB 467, the End Wrongful Convictions Act, would amend the standards used for evaluating expert testimony and forensics in court pre- and post-conviction. Faulty forensic and scientific evidence, provided by expert witnesses, is the second most common reason that individuals are wrongfully convicted. Today, courts have discretion over which expert testimony is admissible.
SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)’s legislation, Senate Bill 793, passed the Senate with a bipartisan vote of 32-0. It will now head to the Assembly for policy committee hearings. SB 793, the Entertainment Venue Recovery Act, creates a new live music entertainment venue license to reduce the burden on these venues. Venues must currently conform to the qualifications of a restaurant license — requiring them to install expensive restaurant-grade kitchens — even though many do not fit into that category.
SACRAMENTO - Senate Bill 57, authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), has passed the Assembly Health Committee by a vote of 9-4.It now heads to the Assembly Public Safety Committee. SB 57 legalizes overdose prevention programs, also known as safe consumption sites or safe injection sites, as pilot programs in San Francisco, Oakland, the City of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County.
SACRAMENTO – Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)’s legislation to create more diverse and representative juries, Senate Bill 271, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in a unanimous, bipartisan vote. SB 271, the Fair Federal Juries Act, will expand jury pools in federal courts in California by allowing them to summon jurors using state tax filing lists. This will help create more diverse and demographically representative juries in federal courts, as jurors are currently selected from narrower lists that are more likely to skew wealthier, whiter and generally less diverse.
SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced Senate Bill 836. This legislation will extend the safeguards from SB 785 (Wiener, 2018), which protected a person’s immigration status in a public court record, unless the presiding judge determined that immigration status was relevant information. This legislation had a sunset date of January 1, 2022, so it has now expired. SB 836 will remove this sunset date, so immigration status will be permanently protected in cases where it is not relevant to the litigation.