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House · Introduced · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 626: Criminal procedure; extend retention period of evidence of sexual assault when victim elects not to immediately report assault

Last action March 4, 2026 · House Postponed

A House Judiciary Committee substitute for HB 626 would require Georgia law enforcement agencies to keep sexual assault evidence for 30 years, instead of just 12 months, when a victim chooses not to immediately report the assault to police.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Comm Sub version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Under current Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 17-5-71), if a sexual assault victim has evidence collected but decides not to report the crime to law enforcement right away, the agency holding that evidence only has to keep it for at least 12 months. This bill, named the 'Stephanie Colquitt-Shurman Act of 2026,' would extend that mandatory retention period to 30 years from the date the evidence is collected. The evidence covered includes physical material containing biological evidence, such as stains, fluids, or hair samples that could help identify a perpetrator. The bill does not change what happens to evidence when a victim reports right away; it only affects the retention rule for evidence tied to unreported assaults. The bill also repeals any conflicting laws.

What the bill does

  • Extends the mandatory retention period for sexual assault evidence from at least 12 months to 30 years when the victim has not reported the assault to police.
  • Applies specifically to physical evidence containing biological material, including stains, fluids, or hair samples linked to identifying a perpetrator.
  • Names the bill the 'Stephanie Colquitt-Shurman Act of 2026' as its official short title.
  • Repeals any existing state laws that conflict with the new retention requirement.

Who it affects

Sexual assault survivors who choose to delay or forgo reporting to police, and the law enforcement agencies across Georgia that collect and store biological evidence from sexual assault cases, since they would need to retain that evidence for decades instead of one year.

Why it matters

Survivors who are not ready to report an assault right away would have far more time, up to 30 years, to change their mind and pursue a criminal case backed by preserved biological evidence, rather than losing that evidence after just one year under current law.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 gives the bill the short title 'Stephanie Colquitt-Shurman Act of 2026.'
  • Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 17-5-71(b) to change the required evidence retention period from 'not less than 12 months' to '30 years' from the date of collection, for cases where the victim did not report the assault at the time evidence was collected.
  • Section 3 repeals any conflicting laws.

Discussed in meetings (6)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, February 23, 2026

    From 1:16:08 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the substitute for HB 626 would extend retention of sexual-assault evidence from cases not immediately reported to police from at least 12 months to 30 years. The sponsor said Georgia collects roughly 2,500 to 2,900 kits annually, with 256 unreported cases in fiscal 2023 and 319 in fiscal 2024. The sponsor described storage needs as modest and said kits do not require refrigeration. The substitute also updated a year reference from 2025 to 2026. Two survivor advocates supported longer retention. One described decades of uncertainty about evidence and a later opportunity to confront an attacker; the second described a lost kit and urged giving survivors more time to decide whether to report. In response to a member's question about closure, a witness emphasized that trauma can last a lifetime and that fear can delay reporting. The committee approved the substitute by voice vote and sent it to Rules.

  2. House Rules Committee, February 25, 2026

    From 0:41:01 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor introduced HB 626 and said it would extend the retention period for sexual assault evidence when a victim does not immediately report to police. The sponsor said the change would increase retention from 12 months to 30 years, matching the treatment of other sexual assault kits. No questions or scheduling decision followed.

  3. House Rules Committee, March 2, 2026

    From 0:19:02 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 1696

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The committee placed HB 626 on Tuesday’s calendar under modified rules. The motion was seconded, no opposition was heard, and there was no discussion of the bill’s contents.

  4. House floor session, March 3, 2026 (legislative day 26, PM)

    From 6:02:03 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Postponed)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair announced that HB 626 would be postponed to the next legislative day. There was no substantive discussion.

  5. House floor session, March 4, 2026 (legislative day 27, PM, part 2)

    From 2:48:28 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Postponed)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair announced that HB 626 would be postponed until the next legislative day, Friday. No substantive discussion occurred.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-03-04House Postponed (House)
  2. 2026-03-03House Postponed (House)
  3. 2026-02-24House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
  4. 2025-04-04House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
  5. 2025-03-04House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
  6. 2025-02-28House Second Readers (House)
  7. 2025-02-27House First Readers (House)
  8. 2025-02-26House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Karen Lupton (D, HD-83)Primary sponsor
  • Scott Holcomb (D, HD-101)
  • Karen Mathiak (R, HD-82)
  • Matt Dubnik (R, HD-29)
  • Marvin Lim (D, HD-98)

Topics

  • sexual assault evidence
  • criminal procedure
  • victims' rights
  • law enforcement policy

Ask about this bill

Answers come from this document. Not legal advice.

Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb626.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp