Mississippi sets higher minimums for sexual battery cases

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — An important piece of legislation to come out of week 12 of the Mississippi House of Representatives Regular Session is the passing of House Bill 525.

The new law is an amendment to current Mississippi Laws surrounding the sentencing of sexual battery cases. Under the former law, there was no set minimum for those convicted of the crime of sexual battery under Section 97-3-95(1) (a), (b) or (2) of Mississippi Code of 1972. 

The new law states when a person aged 16 or above, is convicted of sexual battery  there will be a minimum of a five year sentence. The maximum sentence remains at 30 years. On a second conviction, the person will serve a minimum of 10-years with a maximum of 40-years. 

The law takes affect July 1, 2026. 

The bill was a moderately partisan bill sponsored by six Republican Representatives and one Democrat Representative. Sponsors were Representatives Remak, Hulum, Hall, Harris, Hurst, Owen and McLean. 

Representative Kimberly Remak, R, of DeSoto, said the following in a social media statement:

“For the record, HB 525 authored by me stops a loophole in law giving Judges full discretion when sentencing. Current law allows a judge to sentence in a sexual battery case from zero-30 years for a first offense and zero-40 years for a second offense. With the passage of HB 525, we have given a judge parameters on sentencing a first offense to 5-30 years and 10-40 years in sentencing for sexual battery for a person in trust and authority committing a crime.”