Relates to requiring an indeterminate sentence to run consecutively with any other sentence unless the court orders otherwise; repealer

BILL NUMBER:S2270

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to requiring that indeterminate sentences run consecutively with all other terms unless the court orders concurrent sentences and to repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto

Summary

This bill would change section 70.25, subdivision 1 of the penal law so that when multiple sentences of imprisonment are imposed on a person at the same time, or when a person who is subject to any undischarged term of imprisonment imposed at a previous time by a court of this state is sentenced to an additional term of imprisonment, the sentence or sentences imposed by the court will run consecutively unless otherwise specified by the court. This bill repeals subdivisions 2-a, 2-b, 2-c, 2-d, and 5 of section 70.25 of the penal law.

Justification

Under current law, section 70.25 of the penal law, when multiple sentences of imprisonment are imposed on a person at the same time, their sentence runs concurrently. This bill would order that a sentence run consecutively unless the court, in the interest of justice, finds mitigating circumstances that bear directly upon the manner in which the crime was committed, that the sentence run concurrently. There are currently many violent felony offenders, who have committed more than one violent crime yet are serving sentences for their crimes which run concurrently. This bill, by mandating that a sentence run consecutively, unless otherwise specified, would help bring "truth-in-sentencing" back to the forefront of our criminal justice system.

Fiscal implication

To be determined.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law and apply only to sentences imposed on or after such date, with provisions.