CHAPTER 162

H.P. 1026 - L.D. 1399

An Act To Allow District Attorneys To Approve Immunity

Requests

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 15 MRSA §1314-A, as amended by PL 1985, c. 386, §1, is further amended to read:

§1314-A. Compelling evidence in criminal or juvenile proceedings;

immunity

In any criminal proceeding before a court or grand jury, or in any juvenile proceeding before a court, if a person refuses to answer questions or produce evidence of any kind on the ground that he the person may be incriminated thereby, and if the prosecuting attorney for the State, in writing, and with the written approval of the Attorney General or, in the event the prosecution is being conducted by the office of the district attorney, the written approval of either the Attorney General or the district attorney for that district, requests the court to order that person to answer the questions or produce the evidence, and the court after notice to the witness and hearing shall so order orders, unless it the court finds to do so would be clearly contrary to the public interest, that person shall comply with the order. After complying, and if, but for this section, he that person would have had the right to withhold the answers given or the evidence produced by him that person, that person shall may not be prosecuted or subjected to penalty, forfeiture or adjudication for or on account of any transaction, matter or thing concerning which, in accordance with the order, he that person gave answer or produced evidence. Failure to