Assembly Bill No. 99–Assemblymen Brown, Andonov, Angle, Beers, Christensen, Conklin, Grady, Griffin, Gustavson, Hardy, Hettrick, Knecht, Mabey, Marvel, Mortenson, Oceguera, Perkins and Weber

 

February 13, 2003

____________

 

Referred to Committee on Judiciary

 

SUMMARY—Makes various changes regarding murder committed with intent to commit certain acts of terrorism. (BDR 15‑751)

 

FISCAL NOTE:  Effect on Local Government: No.

                           Effect on the State: Yes.

 

~

 

EXPLANATION – Matter in bolded italics is new; matter between brackets [omitted material] is material to be omitted.

 

AN ACT relating to terrorism; making various changes regarding murder committed with the intent to commit certain acts of terrorism; establishing as murder of the first degree murder committed with the intent to commit certain acts of terrorism; establishing for the purposes of the death penalty an aggravating circumstance relating to murders committed with the intent to commit certain acts of terrorism; providing penalties; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN

SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

 

1-1  Section 1. Chapter 200 of NRS is hereby amended by adding

1-2  thereto the provisions set forth as sections 2 and 3 of this act.

1-3  Sec. 2.  As used in NRS 200.010 to 200.260, inclusive, this

1-4  section and section 3 of this act, unless the context otherwise

1-5  requires, the words and terms defined in NRS 200.010 and section

1-6  3 of this act have the meanings ascribed to them in those sections.

 

 

 

2-1  Sec. 3.  “Act of terrorism” means:

2-2  1.  Any act of undeclared war; or

2-3  2.  Any act that involves the use or the threatened or attempted

2-4  use of sabotage, fear or violence and is intended to:

2-5  (a) Intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

2-6  (b) Disrupt, affect or influence the conduct or policy of a

2-7  governmental entity by intimidation or coercion; or

2-8  (c) Retaliate against a governmental entity or cause

2-9  widespread panic or civil unrest through the substantial

2-10  destruction, contamination, impairment or disruption of:

2-11          (1) Public infrastructure, communications, transportation,

2-12  utilities or services; or

2-13          (2) Natural resources or the environment.

2-14      Sec. 4.  NRS 200.030 is hereby amended to read as follows:

2-15      200.030  1.  Murder of the first degree is murder which is:

2-16      (a) Perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait or torture, or

2-17  by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing;

2-18      (b) Committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of

2-19  sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, robbery, burglary, invasion of the

2-20  home, sexual abuse of a child, sexual molestation of a child under

2-21  the age of 14 years or child abuse;

2-22      (c) Committed to avoid or prevent the lawful arrest of any

2-23  person by a peace officer or to effect the escape of any person from

2-24  legal custody; [or]

2-25      (d) Committed on the property of a public or private school, at

2-26  an activity sponsored by a public or private school or on a school

2-27  bus while the bus was engaged in its official duties by a person who

2-28  intended to create a great risk of death or substantial bodily harm to

2-29  more than one person by means of a weapon, device or course of

2-30  action that would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than

2-31  one person[.] ; or

2-32      (e) Committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of

2-33  an act of terrorism.

2-34      2.  Murder of the second degree is all other kinds of murder.

2-35      3.  The jury before whom any person indicted for murder is

2-36  tried shall, if they find him guilty thereof, designate by their verdict

2-37  whether he is guilty of murder of the first or second degree.

2-38      4.  A person convicted of murder of the first degree is guilty of

2-39  a category A felony and shall be punished:

2-40      (a) By death, only if one or more aggravating circumstances are

2-41  found and any mitigating circumstance or circumstances which are

2-42  found do not outweigh the aggravating circumstance or

2-43  circumstances; or

2-44      (b) By imprisonment in the state prison:

2-45          (1) For life without the possibility of parole;

3-1       (2) For life with the possibility of parole, with eligibility for

3-2  parole beginning when a minimum of 20 years has been served; or

3-3       (3) For a definite term of 50 years, with eligibility for parole

3-4  beginning when a minimum of 20 years has been served.

3-5  A determination of whether aggravating circumstances exist is not

3-6  necessary to fix the penalty at imprisonment for life with or without

3-7  the possibility of parole.

3-8  5.  A person convicted of murder of the second degree is guilty

3-9  of a category A felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the

3-10  state prison:

3-11      (a) For life with the possibility of parole, with eligibility for

3-12  parole beginning when a minimum of 10 years has been served; or

3-13      (b) For a definite term of 25 years, with eligibility for parole

3-14  beginning when a minimum of 10 years has been served.

3-15      6.  As used in this section:

3-16      (a) “Child abuse” means physical injury of a nonaccidental

3-17  nature to a child under the age of 18 years;

3-18      (b) “School bus” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 483.160;

3-19      (c) “Sexual abuse of a child” means any of the acts described in

3-20  NRS 432B.100; and

3-21      (d) “Sexual molestation” means any willful and lewd or

3-22  lascivious act, other than acts constituting the crime of sexual

3-23  assault, upon or with the body, or any part or member thereof, of a

3-24  child under the age of 14 years, with the intent of arousing,

3-25  appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions or sexual desires of the

3-26  perpetrator or of the child.

3-27      Sec. 5.  NRS 200.033 is hereby amended to read as follows:

3-28      200.033  The only circumstances by which murder of the first

3-29  degree may be aggravated are:

3-30      1.  The murder was committed by a person under sentence of

3-31  imprisonment.

3-32      2.  The murder was committed by a person who, at any time

3-33  before a penalty hearing is conducted for the murder pursuant to

3-34  NRS 175.552, is or has been convicted of:

3-35      (a) Another murder and the provisions of subsection 12 do not

3-36  otherwise apply to that other murder; or

3-37      (b) A felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person

3-38  of another and the provisions of subsection 4 do not otherwise apply

3-39  to that felony.

3-40  For the purposes of this subsection, a person shall be deemed to

3-41  have been convicted at the time the jury verdict of guilt is rendered

3-42  or upon pronouncement of guilt by a judge or judges sitting without

3-43  a jury.

3-44      3.  The murder was committed by a person who knowingly

3-45  created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a

4-1  weapon, device or course of action which would normally be

4-2  hazardous to the lives of more than one person.

4-3  4.  The murder was committed while the person was engaged,

4-4  alone or with others, in the commission of or an attempt to commit

4-5  or flight after committing or attempting to commit, any robbery,

4-6  arson in the first degree, burglary, invasion of the home or

4-7  kidnapping in the first degree, and the person charged:

4-8  (a) Killed or attempted to kill the person murdered; or

4-9  (b) Knew or had reason to know that life would be taken or

4-10  lethal force used.

4-11      5.  The murder was committed to avoid or prevent a lawful

4-12  arrest or to effect an escape from custody.

4-13      6.  The murder was committed by a person, for himself or

4-14  another, to receive money or any other thing of monetary value.

4-15      7.  The murder was committed upon a peace officer or fireman

4-16  who was killed while engaged in the performance of his official

4-17  duty or because of an act performed in his official capacity, and the

4-18  defendant knew or reasonably should have known that the victim

4-19  was a peace officer or fireman. For the purposes of this subsection,

4-20  “peace officer” means:

4-21      (a) An employee of the Department of Corrections who does not

4-22  exercise general control over offenders imprisoned within the

4-23  institutions and facilities of the Department but whose normal duties

4-24  require him to come into contact with those offenders, when

4-25  carrying out the duties prescribed by the Director of the Department.

4-26      (b) Any person upon whom some or all of the powers of a peace

4-27  officer are conferred pursuant to NRS 289.150 to 289.360, inclusive,

4-28  when carrying out those powers.

4-29      8.  The murder involved torture or the mutilation of the victim.

4-30      9.  The murder was committed upon one or more persons at

4-31  random and without apparent motive.

4-32      10.  The murder was committed upon a person less than 14

4-33  years of age.

4-34      11.  The murder was committed upon a person because of the

4-35  actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, physical or

4-36  mental disability or sexual orientation of that person.

4-37      12.  The defendant has, in the immediate proceeding, been

4-38  convicted of more than one offense of murder in the first or second

4-39  degree. For the purposes of this subsection, a person shall be

4-40  deemed to have been convicted of a murder at the time the jury

4-41  verdict of guilt is rendered or upon pronouncement of guilt by a

4-42  judge or judges sitting without a jury.

4-43      13.  The person, alone or with others, subjected or attempted to

4-44  subject the victim of the murder to nonconsensual sexual penetration

5-1  immediately before, during or immediately after the commission of

5-2  the murder. For the purposes of this subsection:

5-3  (a) “Nonconsensual” means against the victim’s will or under

5-4  conditions in which the person knows or reasonably should know

5-5  that the victim is mentally or physically incapable of resisting,

5-6  consenting or understanding the nature of his conduct, including, but

5-7  not limited to, conditions in which the person knows or reasonably

5-8  should know that the victim is dead.

5-9  (b) “Sexual penetration” means cunnilingus, fellatio or any

5-10  intrusion, however slight, of any part of the victim’s body or any

5-11  object manipulated or inserted by a person, alone or with others, into

5-12  the genital or anal openings of the body of the victim, whether or

5-13  not the victim is alive. The term includes, but is not limited to, anal

5-14  intercourse and sexual intercourse in what would be its ordinary

5-15  meaning.

5-16      14.  The murder was committed on the property of a public or

5-17  private school, at an activity sponsored by a public or private school

5-18  or on a school bus while the bus was engaged in its official duties by

5-19  a person who intended to create a great risk of death or substantial

5-20  bodily harm to more than one person by means of a weapon, device

5-21  or course of action that would normally be hazardous to the lives of

5-22  more than one person. For the purposes of this subsection, “school

5-23  bus” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 483.160.

5-24      15.  The murder was committed with the intent to commit,

5-25  cause, aid, further or conceal an act of terrorism.

 

5-26  H