Bill Text: CA SB796 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Threats: schools and places of worship.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2024-07-02 - July 2 set for first hearing. Placed on suspense file. [SB796 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB796-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Senate
April 10, 2023 |
| Introduced by Senators Alvarado-Gil and Rubio |
February 17, 2023 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
This bill would additionally make it a crime for a person to willfully threaten to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury at a particular location or event, as specified. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would create a
state-mandated local program.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 422.2 is added to the Penal Code, to read:422.2.
(a) A person who, by any means, including, but not limited to, an electronic act, willfully threatens to commit a crime that is reasonably likely to result in death or great bodily injury to any person who may be on the grounds of a school or place of worship, with the specific intent that the statement is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of carrying it out, if the threat on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and if the threat causes a person or persons reasonably to be in sustained fear for their own safety or the safety of another person, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for a term not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.SEC. 2.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.(a)Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for
their
own safety or for
their immediate family’s safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.
(b)Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury at a particular location or event, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes a person reading or hearing the threat reasonably to be in sustained fear for their own safety or for the
safety of others, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.
(c)For purposes of this section, “immediate family” means any spouse, whether by marriage or not, parent, child, any person related by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the prior six months, regularly resided in the household.
(d)“Electronic communication device” includes, but is not limited to, telephones, cellular telephones, computers, video recorders, fax machines, or pagers. “Electronic communication” has the same meaning as the term defined in Subsection 12 of Section 2510 of Title 18 of the United States Code.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.
