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- Referred to codes
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Title of bill
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to limiting plea bargaining for sexual offenders
Purpose
This bill would require that a person charged with a sexual offense would only be allowed to plea bargain where the agreed upon plea included a sex offense.
Summary of provisions
Amends subdivision 5 of section 220.10 of the Criminal Procedure Law by adding a new paragraph (i) prohibiting anyone charged with a sexual offense from agreeing to a plea bargain that does not include a sexual offense.
Justification
Our nation has overwhelmingly accepted the introduction of Sex Offender Registries. Fifty states have enacted registries.
The purpose of the sex offender registry is to allow our citizens and their families to be forewarned of the presence of sex offenders in their area. It has been proven that sex offenders are more likely to repeat their crimes than any other offenders. With the initiation of the registries we will be able to take precautions to protect ourselves and our children.
A person's name is included in the registry when they have been convicted of a sexual offense and have been released from confinement.
Where an individual is charged with a crime, often, they are allowed to plead to a lesser crime in full satisfaction of all charges. For example, an individual charged with breaking into a home (burglary) and with a sex offense against the occupant (rape), could be allowed to plead to the burglary charge. The rape charge would be dropped or merged and the sex offender would have satisfied all charges. That sex offender, when released, would not be included in the Sex Offender Registry, because he was not convicted of a sex offense.
This bill would prevent the above scenario. The sex offender would no longer be allowed to plead to any charge that did not include a sex offense.
With this bill, a sex offender would not be able to "mask" his sex offense behind another crime. This bill is comparable to Subdivision 10 of Section 1192 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law which provides for plea bargain limitations for Driving While Intoxicated Charges. Anyone charged with a DWI must at least plead guilty to a violation of one of the provisions in the DWI section.
A sex offender, because of the likelihood of a repeat offense, must be required to plead to some sex offense. Otherwise the purpose of the Sex Offender Registry would be easily thwarted.
Legislative history
2007/2008 - S.439 - Passed Senate/Assembly Codes 2005/2006 - S.498 - Passed Senate/Assembly Codes 2004 - S.552 - Passed Senate/Assembly codes 2003 - S.552 - Senate Codes 2001/2002 - S.383 - Senate Codes/Assembly Codes 1999/2000 - S.1017 - Passed Senate/Assembly Codes. 1997/1998 - S.306 - Passed Senate/Assembly Codes. 1995/1996 - S.3478 - Senate Codes.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
1st day of November after having passed.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.