Section 10-919 - Admissibility of conviction for felonious killing in civil proceedings; effect of conviction.
§ 10-919. Admissibility of conviction for felonious killing in civil proceedings; effect of conviction.
(a) In general.- After all right to appeal has been exhausted, a judgment of conviction establishing criminal accountability for the felonious and intentional killing of a decedent:
(1) Is admissible in a subsequent civil proceeding in which the Common Law Slayer's Rule is raised as an issue; and
(2) Conclusively establishes that the convicted individual feloniously and intentionally killed the decedent.
(b) Construction of section.- This section may not be construed to prohibit a court, in the absence of a criminal conviction, from determining by a preponderance of the evidence in a civil proceeding that a killing was felonious and intentional.
[1998, chs. 335, 336.]