Provides for family members of a crime victim and interested parties to make statements to members of the parole board; provides that such oral statement shall be made to the members of the state board of parole who will determine whether the defendant is released.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6167
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 15, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CUSICK -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Codes
AN ACT to amend the criminal procedure law and the executive law, in
relation to requiring that all family members of a crime victim and
all interested parties who want to give a victim impact statement to
parole board members be allowed to do so
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 440.50 of the criminal procedure law, as added by
2 chapter 496 of the laws of 1978, subdivision 1 as amended by section 80
3 of subpart B of part C of chapter 62 of the laws of 2011, and subdivi-
4 sion 2 as amended by chapter 14 of the laws of 1985, is amended to read
5 as follows:
6 § 440.50 Notice to crime victims, family members of a crime victim or an
7 interested party of case disposition.
8 1. Upon the request of a victim of a crime, a family member of a crime
9 victim or an interested party, or in any event in all cases in which the
10 final disposition includes a conviction of a violent felony offense as
11 defined in section 70.02 of the penal law or a felony defined in article
12 one hundred twenty-five of such law, the district attorney shall, within
13 sixty days of the final disposition of the case, inform the victim or a
14 family member of a crime victim or an interested party who requests to
15 be informed by letter of such final disposition. If such final disposi-
16 tion results in the commitment of the defendant to the custody of the
17 department of corrections and community supervision for an indeterminate
18 sentence, the notice provided to the crime victim, a family member of a
19 crime victim or an interested party shall also inform [the victim] him
20 or her of his or her right to submit a written, audiotaped, or vide-
21 otaped victim impact statement to the department of corrections and
22 community supervision or to meet personally with [a member] members of
23 the state board of parole who will determine whether the defendant is
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05451-01-3
A. 6167 2
1 released at a time and place separate from the personal interview
2 between a member or members of the board and the inmate and make such a
3 statement, subject to procedures and limitations contained in rules of
4 the board, both pursuant to subdivision two of section two hundred
5 fifty-nine-i of the executive law. The right of the victim, a family
6 member of the crime victim or an interested party under this subdivision
7 to submit a written victim impact statement or to meet personally with
8 [a member] members of the state board of parole applies to each personal
9 interview between a member or members of the board and the inmate.
10 2. As used in this section, "victim" means any person alleged or
11 found, upon the record, to have sustained physical or financial injury
12 to person or property as a direct result of the crime charged or a
13 person alleged or found to have sustained, upon the record, an offense
14 under article one hundred thirty of the penal law, or in the case of a
15 homicide or minor child, the victim's family.
16 3. As used in this section, "final disposition" means an ultimate
17 termination of the case at the trial level including, but not limited
18 to, dismissal, acquittal, or imposition of sentence by the court, or a
19 decision by the district attorney, for whatever reason, to not file the
20 case.
21 4. As used in this section, "family member of a crime victim" means a
22 member of the victim's immediate family who is at least sixteen years
23 old.
24 5. As used in this section, "interested party" shall mean a person,
25 who is not a family member of a crime victim, designated by the judge
26 who imposes the sentence on the defendant, as a person who has an
27 involvement with the case sufficient to make him or her an interested
28 party. The judge who imposes the sentence on a defendant shall designate
29 interested parties, if any, at the time of sentencing.
30 § 2. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 2 of section 259-i of the executive
31 law, as separately amended by chapters 40 and 126 of the laws of 1999,
32 subparagraph (A) as amended by section 38-f-1 of subpart A of part C of
33 chapter 62 of the laws of 2011, is amended to read as follows:
34 (c) (A) Discretionary release on parole shall not be granted merely as
35 a reward for good conduct or efficient performance of duties while
36 confined but after considering if there is a reasonable probability
37 that, if such inmate is released, he will live and remain at liberty
38 without violating the law, and that his release is not incompatible with
39 the welfare of society and will not so deprecate the seriousness of his
40 crime as to undermine respect for law. In making the parole release
41 decision, the procedures adopted pursuant to subdivision four of section
42 two hundred fifty-nine-c of this article shall require that the follow-
43 ing be considered: (i) the institutional record including program goals
44 and accomplishments, academic achievements, vocational education, train-
45 ing or work assignments, therapy and interactions with staff and
46 inmates; (ii) performance, if any, as a participant in a temporary
47 release program; (iii) release plans including community resources,
48 employment, education and training and support services available to the
49 inmate; (iv) any deportation order issued by the federal government
50 against the inmate while in the custody of the department and any recom-
51 mendation regarding deportation made by the commissioner of the depart-
52 ment pursuant to section one hundred forty-seven of the correction law;
53 (v) any statement made to the board by the crime victim or the victim's
54 representative, where the crime victim is deceased or is mentally or
55 physically incapacitated or a family member of a crime victim or inter-
56 ested party as defined in section 440.50 of the criminal procedure law;
A. 6167 3
1 (vi) the length of the determinate sentence to which the inmate would be
2 subject had he or she received a sentence pursuant to section 70.70 or
3 section 70.71 of the penal law for a felony defined in article two
4 hundred twenty or article two hundred twenty-one of the penal law; (vii)
5 the seriousness of the offense with due consideration to the type of
6 sentence, length of sentence and recommendations of the sentencing
7 court, the district attorney, the attorney for the inmate, the pre-sen-
8 tence probation report as well as consideration of any mitigating and
9 aggravating factors, and activities following arrest prior to confine-
10 ment; and (viii) prior criminal record, including the nature and pattern
11 of offenses, adjustment to any previous probation or parole supervision
12 and institutional confinement. The board shall provide toll free tele-
13 phone access for crime victims, family members of crime victims and
14 interested parties as defined in section 440.50 of the criminal proce-
15 dure law. In the case of an oral statement made in accordance with
16 subdivision one of section 440.50 of the criminal procedure law, [the
17 parole board member shall present a written report of the statement to
18 the parole board] such oral statement shall be made to the members of
19 the state board of parole who will determine whether the defendant is
20 released. A crime victim's representative shall mean the crime victim's
21 closest surviving relative, the committee or guardian of such person, or
22 the legal representative of any such person. Such statement submitted by
23 the victim or victim's representative, or a family member of a crime
24 victim or interested party as defined in section 440.50 of the criminal
25 procedure law may include information concerning threatening or intim-
26 idating conduct toward the victim, the victim's representative, or the
27 victim's family, made by the person sentenced and occurring after the
28 sentencing. Such information may include, but need not be limited to,
29 the threatening or intimidating conduct of any other person who or which
30 is directed by the person sentenced.
31 (B) Where a crime victim or victim's representative as defined in
32 subparagraph (A) of this paragraph or a family member of a crime victim
33 or interested party as defined in section 440.50 of the criminal proce-
34 dure law, or other person submits to the parole board a written state-
35 ment concerning the release of an inmate, the parole board shall keep
36 that individual's name and address confidential.
37 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
38 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
