Skip to content
S3490Senate2015-2016 Session

Creates the crime of falsely accusing someone of a crime

Sponsor Andrew J. LanzaSD-24Affects Legal
Status
In Assembly Committee
Codes
Impact
Pending
Passage
Pending

Bill progress

Step 5 of 7

In Assembly · Codes

What's happening

Writing a plain-English summary… Track this bill to get it by email.

Why it matters

The daily · weekday mornings

Albany, before your first meeting.

Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.

Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.

Who cares

Headline styles

Sponsors

Primary sponsor
Andrew J. Lanza

Senator · Senate District 24

Chair, Cities

No co-sponsors yet.

History

  1. Referred to codes
  2. Delivered to assembly
  3. Passed senateVote 58–3
  4. Ordered to third reading cal.1432
  5. Committee discharged and committed to rules
  6. Referred to codes
  7. Returned to senate
  8. Died in assembly
  9. Referred to codes
  10. Delivered to assembly
  11. Passed senateVote 61–2
  12. Ordered to third reading cal.1167
Show 2 earlier actions
  1. Committee discharged and committed to rules
  2. Referred to codes

Full text

The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.

Sponsor's memo

BILL NUMBER:S3490

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to the crime of falsely accusing someone of a crime

Purpose

Creates the crime of falsely accusing someone of a crime. Makes such accusations a Class E Felony.

Summary of provisions

Section one adds a new section 240.49 to the penal law. Section two is an effective date of November 1.

Justification

This bill creates the crime of falsely accusing someone of a crime. It would make it a Class E Felony to falsely accuse someone of a crime that they did not commit. To protect the rights innocent citizens, the state must protect them from those who seek to falsely accuse someone of a crime under the penal law. For example, in the recent highly publicized Duke University rape case, all criminal charges were dropped after a exotic dancer accused three students of sexual assault, kidnapping and other charges which were investigated to be false. The state's Attorney General announced after a thorough review and investigation there was insufficient evidence to proceed on any of the charges. There was also a rush to judgment and a failure to verify the allegations that would have imprisoned the accused for a long time. There were significant inconsistencies of evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, that eventually led to the three students to be found innocent and there was no credible evidence that an attack occurred. This bill would make it a felony for falsely accusing someone of a crime to protect the innocent from individuals that use our justice system as a tool to hurt those who have not committed any crime.

Legislative history

2014: S4157 Referred to Codes/A.6584 Referred to Codes 2012: S.2948 - Referred to Codes / A.7052 - Referred to Codes. 2011: S.2948 - Referred to Codes / A.7052 - Referred to Codes. 2010: Referred to Codes/A.7403-A - Referred to Codes. 2009: Referred to Codes/A.8598 - Referred to Codes. 2008: S.5675 - Passed Senate/A.8598 - Referred to Codes. 2007: S.5675 - Referred to Codes/A.8598 - Referred to Codes.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.

Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.