Senate Gives Second Ok to ‘Mark’s Law’

Revised Bill Aims to Smooth Passage by Assembly

State Senator Patty Ritchie today announced that the Senate has once again voted unanimously to approve “Mark’s Law,” her measure designed to put the full weight of the law behind emergency first responders and ensure just punishment for those who harm these heroes.
 
The bill, S.7688,  includes changes to the original bill that were proposed by the Assembly sponsor.
 
“Our firefighters and emergency responders put themselves in harm’s way every day to protect us, and we need to make sure that, in return, our laws protect them,” Senator Ritchie.
 
“I’ve continued to push ‘Mark’s Law’ because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s my hope that these changes, which were sought by the Assembly sponsor, will allow the bill to be passed in that house so it can become law.”

“Mark’s Law,” which is named for Mark Davis, the 25-year-old Cape Vincent EMT gunned down while responding to a call about a medical emergency, would provide the stiffest penalty allowed by law—life imprisonment without possibility of parole—for murder of a first responder.

It passed unanimously in the Senate on May 22.
 
The new bill, which is identical to the original in its goal of raising penalties for murder of an emergency responder, simply changes that way that group is defined.

Every year, more than 700,000 emergency responders across the US are victims of violence, and those cases ended in tragedy at least 20 times over the past two decades.