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
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.