Bill Text: NY S01109 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Removes the $250 amount of damage from cemetery desecration in the second degree; makes cemetery desecration in the second degree a class E felony to apply to any damage or theft regardless of value; adds crime of cemetery desecration in the first degree and makes such crime a class D felony.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2018-03-06 - referred to codes [S01109 Detail]

Download: New_York-2017-S01109-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          1109
                               2017-2018 Regular Sessions
                    IN SENATE
                                     January 6, 2017
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  Sen.  FELDER -- 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 cemetery desecration;  and
          to repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Section 145.23 of the penal law, as amended by chapter  353
     2  of the laws of 2007, is amended to read as follows:
     3  § 145.23 Cemetery desecration in the [first] second degree.
     4    A  person  is  guilty  of  cemetery  desecration in the [first] second
     5  degree when with intent to damage property of another person, and having
     6  no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that  he  or  she
     7  has such right, he or she:
     8    (a)  damages  any  real  or personal property maintained as a cemetery
     9  plot, grave, burial place or other place of interment of  human  remains
    10  [in an amount exceeding two hundred fifty dollars]; or
    11    (b)  with intent to steal personal property, he or she steals personal
    12  property[, the value of which exceeds two hundred fifty dollars,]  which
    13  is  located  at  a  cemetery plot, grave, burial place or other place of
    14  interment of human remains and which property is owned by the person  or
    15  organization  which maintains or owns such place or the estate, next-of-
    16  kin or representatives of the deceased person interred there[; or
    17    (c) commits the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree  as
    18  defined  in  section  145.22  of  this  article  and has been previously
    19  convicted of the crime of cemetery  desecration  in  the  second  degree
    20  within the preceding five years].
    21    Cemetery desecration in the [first] second degree is a class E felony.
    22    §  2.  The penal law is amended by adding a new section 145.24 to read
    23  as follows:
    24  § 145.24 Cemetery desecration in the first degree.
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04815-01-7
        S. 1109                             2
     1    A person is guilty of cemetery desecration in the first degree when he
     2  or she commits the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree as
     3  defined in section 145.23  of  this  article  and  has  been  previously
     4  convicted  of  the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree or
     5  cemetery  desecration  in  the  first  degree  within the preceding five
     6  years.
     7    Cemetery desecration in the first degree is a class D felony.
     8    § 3. Section 145.22 of the penal law is REPEALED.
     9    § 4. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
    10  ing the date on which it shall have become a law.