SALT LAKE CITY — It’s happened in Florida, when a group of teens taunted a drowning man while filming his death, laughing while the man struggled to keep his head above water.

The teens won’t be charged with any crime, Florida police have said, because there is no law requiring onlookers to call 911 or give any aid to a person in distress.

A Utah lawmaker pointed to that example while arguing in front of the full House of Representatives on Wednesday why his colleague’s bill — after years of struggle — should advance forward so prosecutors have a tool in case that level of indifference happens in Utah.

Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, said stories like the one in Florida and the thought that Utah’s criminal system “has a gigantic hole” have “haunted” him.

“Somebody can stand there, watch another person getting beat bloody, and videotape the thing and post it on the internet and act like it’s entertainment and just sit there and watch it happen and there’s nothing — nothing — that can occur,” Hutchings said.

“We have truly, in my mind, gone back to the days of the gladiatorial games, where we’re going to go buy ourselves a churro, buy a Diet Coke, and sit in the stands and watch somebody get ripped to shreds,” Hutchings added. “And we’ve got to stop it.”

But Hutchings’ graphic appeal to his fellow Republican colleagues didn’t sway the majority.

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After several years of a similar fate, House Minority Leader Brian King’s HB104 was shot down on the House floor.

The bill would have allowed a misdemeanor charge be filed against an individual who “willfully” fails to call 911 if they see a person suffering serious bodily injury.

King said after years of work to address past concerns, this year’s version of the bill had been “narrowed” to only impact the worst offenders — someone who “knowingly, intentionally and willfully fails” to call 911. He called it a “modest extension” of current law to give prosecutors a tool so such people can be held accountable.

But Rep. Merrill Nelson, R-Grantsville, argued against the bill, saying it crosses a line into new legal territory for Utah. He commended King for his work, but quoted the Bible’s good Samaritan parable to make his case against it.

“The more we mandate goodness as a society, the more we lose innate goodness in society because we no longer act as a good Samaritan,” Nelson said. “We act as someone who is forced by law to be good.”

Several other Republican lawmakers rose to support King’s bill, but in the end their appeals didn’t take hold. The bill failed 29-46.

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