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A09016 Summary:

BILL NOA09016
 
SAME ASSAME AS S07942
 
SPONSORGibbs
 
COSPNSRDavila, Darling
 
MLTSPNSR
 
Amd §70.00, Pen L
 
Clarifies that only persons eighteen years of age and older may be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
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A09016 Actions:

BILL NOA09016
 
02/02/2024referred to codes
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A09016 Memo:

NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION
submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A9016
 
SPONSOR: Gibbs
  TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the penal law, in relation to the age of persons eligi- ble for a sentence of life imprisonment without parole   PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: The purpose of this bill is to ban life without parole sentences for crimes committed as a minor   SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS: Section 1 amends subdivision 5 of section 70.00 of the penal law to specify that only defendants who are eighteen years of age at the time of the commission of the crimes of murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, or aggravated murder may be sentenced to life without parole. Section 2 sets that this act shall take effect immediately.   DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE): Click here to enter text.   JUSTIFICATION: The U.S. is the only country that sentences children to die in prison. Adolescent brain science confirms what, as Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said "any parent knows": that teens lack full impulse control, have a warped understanding of risk, and rely more heavily on emotional parts of their brains when making decisions. The Supreme Court acknowl- edged this in a series of rulings since 2005 banning the use of capital punishment and excessively harsh juvenile sentences as unconstitutional. As the Court wrote in one such case, "children are constitutionally different from adults in their levels of culpability" (Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S.Ct. 718, 736 (2016)). According to the Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth, nearly 80 percent of juvenile lifers witnessed domestic violence as children, and more than half witnessed regular neighborhood violence. Nearly half of children sentenced to life in prison have experienced physical abuse, and 77 percent of girls sentenced to LWOP have suffered sexual abuse. A 2008 Human Rights Watch report found that on average, Black youth serve LWOP sentences at 10 times the rate of white youth. Though the Court banned the imposition of mandatory life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences for juveniles and limited LWOP sentencing to homicide offenses, it has not yet banned the imposition of juvenile LWOP entire- ly. It should have. The high courts in two states, Washington (2021) and Massachusetts (2024), have taken it a step further and ruled that sentencing "emerging adults" aged 18-20 to LWOP is a violation of the Eighth Amendment and the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment found in their state's constitutions. Though New York does not currently have any person serving a LWOP sentence for a crime committed as a minor, juvenile LWOP is technically legal in the state. This bill would have New York join the twenty-seven other states that have banned all juvenile life without parole sentences - bringing our statutes in line with our values and the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.   PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New bill   FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: None   EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately
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A09016 Text:



 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                          9016
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                    February 2, 2024
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced  by M. of A. GIBBS -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Codes
 
        AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to the age of persons  eligi-
          ble for a sentence of life imprisonment without parole
 
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 70.00 of the penal law, as amended
     2  by section 40-a of part WWW of chapter  59  of  the  laws  of  2017,  is
     3  amended to read as follows:
     4    5.   Life  imprisonment  without  parole.  Notwithstanding  any  other
     5  provision of law, a defendant sentenced  to  life  imprisonment  without
     6  parole  shall  not  be  or  become  eligible  for  parole or conditional
     7  release. For purposes of commitment and custody, other than  parole  and
     8  conditional  release,  such sentence shall be deemed to be an indetermi-
     9  nate sentence. A defendant who was eighteen years of age or older at the
    10  time of the commission of the crime may be sentenced to  life  imprison-
    11  ment without parole upon conviction for the crime of murder in the first
    12  degree  as  defined  in section 125.27 of this chapter and in accordance
    13  with the procedures provided by law for imposing  a  sentence  for  such
    14  crime. A defendant who was eighteen years of age or older at the time of
    15  the commission of the crime must be sentenced to life imprisonment with-
    16  out  parole  upon  conviction  for  the crime of terrorism as defined in
    17  section 490.25 of this chapter, where the specified offense the  defend-
    18  ant committed is a class A-I felony; the crime of criminal possession of
    19  a chemical weapon or biological weapon in the first degree as defined in
    20  section 490.45 of this chapter; or the crime of criminal use of a chemi-
    21  cal  weapon  or  biological  weapon  in  the  first degree as defined in
    22  section 490.55 of this chapter; provided, however, that nothing in  this
    23  subdivision  shall  preclude  or  prevent  a  sentence of death when the
    24  defendant is also convicted of the crime of murder in the  first  degree
    25  as defined in section 125.27 of this chapter. A defendant who was seven-
    26  teen  years of age or younger at the time of the commission of the crime
    27  may be sentenced, in accordance with law, to the  applicable  indetermi-
    28  nate  sentence  [with  a maximum term of life imprisonment]. A defendant
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13107-02-3

        A. 9016                             2
 
     1  who was eighteen years of age or older at the time of the commission  of
     2  the  crime  must  be  sentenced to life imprisonment without parole upon
     3  conviction for the crime of murder in the second degree  as  defined  in
     4  subdivision  five  of section 125.25 of this chapter or for the crime of
     5  aggravated murder as defined in subdivision one  of  section  125.26  of
     6  this  chapter. A defendant who was eighteen years of age or older at the
     7  time of the commission of the crime may be sentenced to  life  imprison-
     8  ment  without  parole upon conviction for the crime of aggravated murder
     9  as defined in subdivision two of section 125.26 of this chapter.
    10    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
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