TERRORISM: SENTENCING GUIDELINES - H.B. 5520 (H-2): FLOOR ANALYSIS
House Bill 5520 (Substitute H-2 as reported without amendment)
Sponsor: Representative Douglas Bovin
House Committee: Criminal Justice
Senate Committee: Judiciary
CONTENT
The bill would amend the sentencing guidelines provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure to require that offense variable 20 (terrorism), proposed by Senate Bill 946, be scored for all crime categories.
In addition, the Code requires that offense variable 5 (psychological injury to a member of a victim's family) and offense variable 6 (the offender's intent to kill or injure another individual) be scored for homicide, attempted homicide, or assault with intent to commit murder. The House bill would add to the crimes for which offense variables 5 and 6 must be scored conspiracy or solicitation to commit a homicide.
The bill would take effect on May 1, 2002, and is tie-barred to Senate Bill 930, which would create the "Michigan Anti-Terrorism Act", as Chapter 83-A of the Michigan Penal Code.
(Under Senate Bill 946, as passed by the Senate, to score offense variable 20, the court would have to determine which of the following applied and assign the number of points attributable to the one with the highest number: 1) the offender committed an act of terrorism by using or threatening to use a harmful biological substance, harmful biological device, harmful chemical substance, harmful chemical device, harmful radioactive material, harmful radioactive device, incendiary device, or explosive device (100 points); 2) the offender committed an act of terrorism without using or threatening to use such a substance, device, or material (50 points); 3) the offender supported an act of terrorism, a terrorist, or a terrorist organization (25 points); or 4) the offender did not commit an act of terrorism or support an act or terrorism, a terrorist, or a terrorist organization (0 points).)
MCL 777.22 - Legislative Analyst: Patrick Affholter
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on State and local government. To the extent that it would add possible offense variable points, which help to determine the minimum sentence range that an offender may receive, the bill could potentially increase average sentence lengths, thereby increasing criminal justice costs.
Date Completed: 3-6-02 - Fiscal Analyst: Bethany WicksallFloor\hb5520 - Bill Analysis @ http://www.senate.state.mi.us/sfa
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.