NY State Senate Bill 2023-S7942

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Codes Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 04, 2024	referred to codes

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A9016
Current Committee:: Senate Codes
Law Section:: Penal Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §70.00, Pen L

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Clarifies that only persons eighteen years of age and older may be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S7942

SPONSOR: HOYLMAN-SIGAL
 
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:

To ban the imposition of life-without-parole sentences for crimes
committed as a minor.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC 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 is the effective date.

 
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. 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.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7942
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              January 4, 2024
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by Sen. HOYLMAN-SIGAL -- read twice and ordered printed, and
   when printed to be committed 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:

   Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 70.00 of the penal law, as amended
 by section 40-a of part WWW of chapter  59  of  the  laws  of  2017,  is
 amended to read as follows:
   5.   Life  imprisonment  without  parole.  Notwithstanding  any  other
 provision of law, a defendant sentenced  to  life  imprisonment  without
 parole  shall  not  be  or  become  eligible  for  parole or conditional
 release. For purposes of commitment and custody, other than  parole  and
 conditional  release,  such sentence shall be deemed to be an indetermi-
 nate sentence. A defendant WHO WAS EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT THE
 TIME OF THE COMMISSION OF THE CRIME may be sentenced to  life  imprison-
 ment without parole upon conviction for the crime of murder in the first
 degree  as  defined  in section 125.27 of this chapter and in accordance
 with the procedures provided by law for imposing  a  sentence  for  such
 crime. A defendant who was eighteen years of age or older at the time of
 the commission of the crime must be sentenced to life imprisonment with-
 out  parole  upon  conviction  for  the crime of terrorism as defined in
 section 490.25 of this chapter, where the specified offense the  defend-
 ant committed is a class A-I felony; the crime of criminal possession of
 a chemical weapon or biological weapon in the first degree as defined in
 section 490.45 of this chapter; or the crime of criminal use of a chemi-
 cal  weapon  or  biological  weapon  in  the  first degree as defined in
 section 490.55 of this chapter; provided, however, that nothing in  this
 subdivision  shall  preclude  or  prevent  a  sentence of death when the
 defendant is also convicted of the crime of murder in the  first  degree
 as defined in section 125.27 of this chapter. A defendant who was seven-
 teen  years of age or younger at the time of the commission of the crime
 may be sentenced, in accordance with law, to the  applicable  indetermi-
 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
 S. 7942                             2
 
 WHO WAS EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT THE TIME OF THE COMMISSION  OF
 THE  CRIME  must  be  sentenced to life imprisonment without parole upon
 conviction for the crime of murder in the second degree  as  defined  in
 subdivision  five  of section 125.25 of this chapter or for the crime of
 aggravated murder as defined in subdivision one  of  section  125.26  of
 this  chapter. A defendant WHO WAS EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT THE
 TIME OF THE COMMISSION OF THE CRIME may be sentenced to  life  imprison-
 ment  without  parole upon conviction for the crime of aggravated murder
 as defined in subdivision two of section 125.26 of this chapter.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

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Senate Bill S7942

Sponsored By

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Codes Committee

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments

Senate Bill S7942

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Sponsored By

Brad Hoylman-Sigal

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Codes Committee

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S7942 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments