A03892 Summary:
BILL NO | A03892 |
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SAME AS | SAME AS S04346 |
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SPONSOR | Jackson |
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COSPNSR | |
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MLTSPNSR | |
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Amd §125.25, Pen L | |
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Requires that a defendant must be over twenty-five years old to be guilty of felony murder. |
A03892 Actions:
BILL NO | A03892 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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02/08/2023 | referred to codes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
01/03/2024 | referred to codes |
A03892 Memo:
Go to topNEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION
submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)   BILL NUMBER: A3892 SPONSOR: Jackson
  TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the penal law, in relation to requiring that a defendant must be over twenty-five years old to be guilty of felony murder   PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: This bill will raise the age of felony murder to over twenty-five years of age.   SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS: Section 1 amends Penal Law 125.25 (3).   JUSTIFICATION: It has been established that the brain of a young individual does not fully develop until they are in their late twenties. As a consequence of their developmental stage, they do not engage in the same kind of risk benefit analysis as older individuals. - They do not have as-much life experience as an older person and are more prone to social pressure from their peers. As a result of this, they tend to take part in risky behav- ior and be less deterred than an adult by the thought of possible conse- quences that seem remote to them. In spite of their biological immaturi- ty, our laws treat them as adults. The felony murder rule establishes criminal liability for 'all codefen- dants when a person is murdered during the commission of certain felo- nies. In some cases, the co-defendant who actually committed the murder may cooperate with the police so the other co-defendant that did not commit the murder ends up with a longer sentence than the person who actually committed the murder. People who did not commit murder, did not intend to commit murder and did not conspire to commit murder end up with life sentences for murder and can spend decades behind bars. While young people can and should be held responsible for their own acts, it is unjust to hold them responsible for the acts of other people that they did not contemplate. A young individual that goes along with a crowd to commit a crime should be responsible for the crime they commit but not for the crime they didn't commit and were too immature to reasonably foresee.   PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: 2021-22: A.6840 Referred to Codes / S.5353 REFERRED TO CODES   FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None.   LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None   EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately.
A03892 Text:
Go to top STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 3892 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 8, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. JACKSON -- read once and referred to the Commit- tee on Codes AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to requiring that a defendant must be over twenty-five years old to be guilty of felony murder The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The opening paragraph and paragraph (d) of subdivision 3 of 2 section 125.25 of the penal law, the opening paragraph as amended by 3 chapter 264 of the laws of 2003 and paragraph (d) as amended by chapter 4 477 of the laws of 1990, are amended to read as follows: 5 Acting either alone or with one or more other persons, [he] a defend- 6 ant being more than twenty-five years old commits or attempts to commit 7 robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson, rape in the first degree, criminal 8 sexual act in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, aggra- 9 vated sexual abuse, escape in the first degree, or escape in the second 10 degree, and, in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or of 11 immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant, if there 12 be any, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants; 13 except that in any prosecution under this subdivision, in which the 14 defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, it is an 15 affirmative defense that the defendant: 16 (d) Had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant 17 intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious phys- 18 ical injury[; or]. 19 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD07132-01-3