Bill > H1340

This bill establishes a legal framework concerning parental rights and child survivors of homicide, primarily by creating a rebuttable presumption that a parent convicted of murdering the child's other parent, or aiding in such a murder, is not acting in the child's best interest regarding custody, visitation, or other parental rights. This presumption can only be overcome if the child is competent and agrees to contact with the convicted parent, or if the murder occurred within the context of documented abuse by the other parent and contact is deemed in the child's best interest, with the court required to make specific written findings in such cases. The bill also amends existing laws to prevent individuals involved in child custody or visitation cases from facilitating contact between a child and a convicted parent, and it modifies adoption procedures to require consideration of such a conviction when dispensing with a convicted parent's consent to adoption, unless specific exceptions related to abuse or the child's assent are met.