Not Germane

AMENDMENT NO 2 PROPOSED TO

House Bill No.  747

BY: Senator(s) McMahan

     AMEND by inserting the following after line 118 and renumber subsequent section(s) accordingly:

SECTION *.  Section 93-17-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward and amended as follows:

     93-17-1.  (1)  The chancery court or the chancellor in vacation, of the county of the residence of the petitioners shall have jurisdiction upon the petition of any person to alter the names of such person, to make legitimate any living offspring of the petitioner not born in wedlock, and to decree said offspring to be an heir of the petitioner.

     (2)  An illegitimate child shall become a legitimate child of the natural father if the natural father marries the natural mother and acknowledges the child.

(3)  No person while committed, sentenced, or otherwise placed under the custody of the Department of Corrections shall have standing before a chancery court for the purposes of identity or name change.  No chancery judge shall order an identity change for a person while committed, sentenced, or otherwise placed under the custody of the Department of Corrections.  No chancery clerk shall process requests for identity changes for any person committed, sentenced, or otherwise placed under the custody of the Department of Corrections.

(4)  The following exceptions may apply to this subsection (3):

(a)  A district attorney may petition a chancery judge on behalf of an incarcerated person for purposes of identity or name change.

(b)  A sheriff of a county in which a person is incarcerated may petition a chancery judge on behalf of an incarcerated person within the county for purposes of a name or identity change.

(c)  The requirements of this subsection shall not apply to an incarcerated person with contrary religious beliefs.

FURTHER, AMEND the title to conform.

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