WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor                           Ch. 728

enforcement agencies; specifying that a confidential communication between
spouses during their marriage may be disclosed if the confidential communication
occurs during the commission of a crime or pertains to a crime committed by one
spouse against the other; providing a certain exception to the prohibition against
compelling the spouse of a person on trial for a crime to testify; allowing evidence,
including expert testimony, of the Battered Child Syndrome to be admitted in
certain criminal trials to prove certain defenses to certain crimes; making it
mandatory, rather than discretionary, for an officer to arrest or take into custody a
person whom the officer has probable cause to believe is in violation of an ex-parte
order or protective order providing that if a law enforcement officer responds to a
certain request for assistance and an incident report is filed, the law enforcement
agency shall provide a copy of the incident report to the Maryland State Police and
on request to the victim without a subpoena; altering provisions of law relating to
the authority of an officer to arrest a person without a warrant for violations of
certain orders concerning domestic violence; providing a certain exception to the
prohibition against compelling the spouse of a person to testify; expanding the
coverage of the battered spouse program to include certain victims of domestic
violence; changing the name of the program; altering the definitions of child abuse
and neglect; repealing a certain exception to the defifinitions of child abuse and
neglect relating to nonmedical religious remedial care; clarifying the time for
initiation of an investigation of a report of suspected child abuse or neglect or
suspected mental injury; requiring the investigation to include a certain assessment
if mental injury is suspected; altering the definitions of child abuse and neglect;
repealing a certain exception to the definitions of child abuse and neglect relating to
nonmedical religious remedial care; clarifying the time for initiation of an
investigation of a report of suspected child abuse or neglect or suspected mental
injury; requiring the investigation to include a certain assessment if mental injury is
suspected; defining certain terms; altering certain definitions; making certain
stylistic changes; and generally relating to domestic violence and child abuse and
neglect.

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,
Article 27 - Crimes and Punishments
Section 11F to be under the amended subheading "Domestic Abuse", 464D,.

464D(b), and 594B(d)
Annotated Code of Maryland
(1992 Replacement Volume and 1993 Supplement)

BY adding to

Article 27 - Crimes and Punishments

Section 770 and 771

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1992 Replacement Volume and 1993 Supplement)

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,
Article - Courts and Judicial Proceedings
Section 9-106

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