Bill Text: IL HB0242 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly | Engrossed

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Bill Title: Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. In the statute concerning stalking, defines "places a person under surveillance" to include tracking the person through any available technological means. Provides that a person also commits aggravated stalking when he or she commits stalking and causes severe and permanent disability, great bodily harm, or disfigurement. Makes this violation a Class 1 felony.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 33-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2017-01-10 - Senate Floor Amendment No. 1 Referred to Assignments [HB0242 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2015-HB0242-Engrossed.html

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AN ACT concerning criminal law.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Criminal Code of 2012 is amended by changing
Section 12-7.3 as follows:
(720 ILCS 5/12-7.3) (from Ch. 38, par. 12-7.3)
Sec. 12-7.3. Stalking.
(a) A person commits stalking when he or she knowingly
engages in a course of conduct directed at a specific person,
and he or she knows or should know that this course of conduct
would cause a reasonable person to:
(1) fear for his or her safety or the safety of a third
person; or
(2) suffer other emotional distress.
(a-3) A person commits stalking when he or she, knowingly
and without lawful justification, on at least 2 separate
occasions follows another person or places the person under
surveillance or any combination thereof and:
(1) at any time transmits a threat of immediate or
future bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement or
restraint and the threat is directed towards that person or
a family member of that person; or
(2) places that person in reasonable apprehension of

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immediate or future bodily harm, sexual assault,
confinement or restraint to or of that person or a family
member of that person.
(a-5) A person commits stalking when he or she has
previously been convicted of stalking another person and
knowingly and without lawful justification on one occasion:
(1) follows that same person or places that same person
under surveillance; and
(2) transmits a threat of immediate or future bodily
harm, sexual assault, confinement or restraint to that
person or a family member of that person.
(b) Sentence. Stalking is a Class 4 felony; a second or
subsequent conviction is a Class 3 felony.
(c) Definitions. For purposes of this Section:
(1) "Course of conduct" means 2 or more acts, including
but not limited to acts in which a defendant directly,
indirectly, or through third parties, by any action,
method, device, or means follows, monitors, observes,
surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about, a person,
engages in other non-consensual contact, or interferes
with or damages a person's property or pet. A course of
conduct may include contact via electronic communications.
(2) "Electronic communication" means any transfer of
signs, signals, writings, sounds, data, or intelligence of
any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire,
radio, electromagnetic, photoelectric, or photo-optical

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system. "Electronic communication" includes transmissions
by a computer through the Internet to another computer.
(3) "Emotional distress" means significant mental
suffering, anxiety or alarm.
(4) "Family member" means a parent, grandparent,
brother, sister, or child, whether by whole blood,
half-blood, or adoption and includes a step-grandparent,
step-parent, step-brother, step-sister or step-child.
"Family member" also means any other person who regularly
resides in the household, or who, within the prior 6
months, regularly resided in the household.
(5) "Follows another person" means (i) to move in
relative proximity to a person as that person moves from
place to place or (ii) to remain in relative proximity to a
person who is stationary or whose movements are confined to
a small area. "Follows another person" does not include a
following within the residence of the defendant.
(6) "Non-consensual contact" means any contact with
the victim that is initiated or continued without the
victim's consent, including but not limited to being in the
physical presence of the victim; appearing within the sight
of the victim; approaching or confronting the victim in a
public place or on private property; appearing at the
workplace or residence of the victim; entering onto or
remaining on property owned, leased, or occupied by the
victim; or placing an object on, or delivering an object

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to, property owned, leased, or occupied by the victim.
(7) "Places a person under surveillance" means: (1)
remaining present outside the person's school, place of
employment, vehicle, other place occupied by the person, or
residence other than the residence of the defendant; or (2)
placing an electronic tracking device on the person or the
person's property, or otherwise tracks the person through
any similar available technological means.
(8) "Reasonable person" means a person in the victim's
situation.
(9) "Transmits a threat" means a verbal or written
threat or a threat implied by a pattern of conduct or a
combination of verbal or written statements or conduct.
(d) Exemptions.
(1) This Section does not apply to any individual or
organization (i) monitoring or attentive to compliance
with public or worker safety laws, wage and hour
requirements, or other statutory requirements, or (ii)
picketing occurring at the workplace that is otherwise
lawful and arises out of a bona fide labor dispute,
including any controversy concerning wages, salaries,
hours, working conditions or benefits, including health
and welfare, sick leave, insurance, and pension or
retirement provisions, the making or maintaining of
collective bargaining agreements, and the terms to be
included in those agreements.

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(2) This Section does not apply to an exercise of the
right to free speech or assembly that is otherwise lawful.
(3) Telecommunications carriers, commercial mobile
service providers, and providers of information services,
including, but not limited to, Internet service providers
and hosting service providers, are not liable under this
Section, except for willful and wanton misconduct, by
virtue of the transmission, storage, or caching of
electronic communications or messages of others or by
virtue of the provision of other related
telecommunications, commercial mobile services, or
information services used by others in violation of this
Section.
(d-5) The incarceration of a person in a penal institution
who commits the course of conduct or transmits a threat is not
a bar to prosecution under this Section.
(d-10) A defendant who directed the actions of a third
party to violate this Section, under the principles of
accountability set forth in Article 5 of this Code, is guilty
of violating this Section as if the same had been personally
done by the defendant, without regard to the mental state of
the third party acting at the direction of the defendant.
(Source: P.A. 96-686, eff. 1-1-10; 96-1551, eff. 7-1-11;
97-311, eff. 8-11-11; 97-1109, eff. 1-1-13.)