Public Chapter 314

SENATE BILL NO. 1756

By Ramsey

Substituted for: House Bill No. 1647

By Westmoreland

AN ACT To amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 16 and Title 40, relative to videotape equipment and recordings.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 40, Chapter 14, Part 3, is amended by adding the following as a new, appropriately designated section:

In addition to the use of videotape equipment to record court proceedings as set forth within Rule 26 of the Rules of the Supreme Court, the supreme court is authorized and hereby encouraged to permit, in appropriate situations, the use of video equipment and recordings during the preliminary stages preceding trial for any criminal offense, including, but not necessarily limited to, bail hearings, arraignments, hearings wherein a defendant's guilty plea is entered and accepted by the court without trial, and other proceedings before the criminal court preliminary to trial.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.