NEW 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.
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
