Bills Introduced to the Rhode Island House (Criminal and Civil Offense Focus), January 18-20
Significant Rewrites with Statewide Impact
| H5029 | Defines crimes of assault, battery and manslaughter against an unborn child. |
| H5095 | Authorizes a “24/7” sobriety program as an alternative to imprisonment for drunk driving offenses. |
Targeted Changes with Statewide Impact
| H5027 | Creates a civil action for forcing or coercing a woman to have an abortion without her free consent. |
| H5028 | Defines a specific crime of assault or battery on a pregnant woman resulting in miscarriage or stillbirth. |
| H5031 | Possession of less than one ounce of marijuana is a civil offense only. |
| H5033 | Adds elected officials to the list of first-degree murder victims that can trigger a sentence of life without parole. |
| H5034 | Adds elected officials to list of victims of assault and battery that can trigger increased sentences. |
| H5065 | Increase penalties for desecrating graves an other public monuments. (Also changes the word “inclosure” to “enclosure” everywhere in the affected chapters of RI law). Companion to S0033. |
| H5066 | Adds salvia divinorum, datura stramonium and synthetic cannabinoids to the list of controlled substances in RI. |
| H5087 | Choking someone is a felony, even if it does not result in serious bodily injury. |
| H5089 | Extends the definition of hate crime to cover crimes motivated by “gender identity or expression”. |
| H5090 | Extends the life of a task force working on the improvement of lineup procedures in RI. |
| H5094 | Prohibits “sexting” by minors. |
| H5096 | Requires a motorist overtaking a bicyclist to leave at least three feet of clearance. |
| H5099 | From the official description: “This act would amend the larceny and unlawful conversion provisions of the general laws pertaining to when a crime is to be treated as a felony, by increasing the threshold amount from five hundred dollars ($500) to one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500)”. |
“H5094 Prohibits “sexting” by minors.”
If they’re dumb enough to do it in the first place, making it illegal is going to make them think twice now?
“H5096 Requires a motorist overtaking a bicyclist to leave at least three feet of clearance.”
Hooray!
“H5087 Choking someone is a felony, even if it does not result in serious bodily injury.”
Can MMA/UFC be sanctioned in RI? If so, they might want to put an exception for it in this law, or there will be a lot of arrests at that show. There are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and other variations of karate all around the state that teach many choke holds. They may want to also add in this exception.
From H5094:
“A violation of this section shall be a status offense and referred to the family court. (d) Any minor adjudicated under subsection (b) shall not be charged under section 11-9-1.3 and, further, shall not be subject to sex offender registration requirements”
This is actually fixing the law so that teenagers ‘sexting’ each other don’t end up in state custody or having to register as ‘sex offenders’. As it currently stands, teens -could- end up in the same kind of trouble for sending some topless pictures to each other as they would if they were Dirty Old Men running a kiddie porn distributorship.
I sure elected officials have no problem making H5033 + H5034 go both ways. In other words, if an elected official uses their protected status to commit a crime (assault, etc.) the penalty is increased as defined in this bill. Are they not held to a higher standard? Or just protected.