Bill Text: IL SB2138 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Deletes the mental state of "knowingly" from the elements of the offense of resisting or obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, or correctional institution employee.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Failed) 2025-01-07 - Session Sine Die [SB2138 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-SB2138-Introduced.html

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103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 SB2138 Introduced 2/10/2023, by Sen. Andrew S. Chesney SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
720 ILCS 5/31-1 from Ch. 38, par. 31-1
Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Deletes the mental state of "knowingly" from the elements of the offense of resisting or obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, or correctional institution employee.
LRB103 27171 RLC 53541 b
A BILL FOR
SB2138 LRB103 27171 RLC 53541 b
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 31-1 as follows:
(720 ILCS 5/31-1) (from Ch. 38, par. 31-1)
Sec. 31-1. Resisting or obstructing a peace officer,
firefighter, or correctional institution employee.
(a) A person who knowingly:
(1) resists arrest, or
(2) obstructs the performance by one known to the
person to be a peace officer, firefighter, or correctional
institution employee of any authorized act within his or
her official capacity commits a Class A misdemeanor.
(a-5) In addition to any other sentence that may be
imposed, a court shall order any person convicted of resisting
or obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, or correctional
institution employee to be sentenced to a minimum of 48
consecutive hours of imprisonment or ordered to perform
community service for not less than 100 hours as may be
determined by the court. The person shall not be eligible for
probation in order to reduce the sentence of imprisonment or
community service.

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(a-7) A person convicted for a violation of this Section
whose violation was the proximate cause of an injury to a peace
officer, firefighter, or correctional institution employee is
guilty of a Class 4 felony.
(b) For purposes of this Section, "correctional
institution employee" means any person employed to supervise
and control inmates incarcerated in a penitentiary, State
farm, reformatory, prison, jail, house of correction, police
detention area, half-way house, or other institution or place
for the incarceration or custody of persons under sentence for
offenses or awaiting trial or sentence for offenses, under
arrest for an offense, a violation of probation, a violation
of parole, a violation of aftercare release, a violation of
mandatory supervised release, or awaiting a hearing or
preliminary hearing on setting the conditions of pretrial
release, or who are sexually dangerous persons or who are
sexually violent persons; and "firefighter" means any
individual, either as an employee or volunteer, of a regularly
constituted fire department of a municipality or fire
protection district who performs fire fighting duties,
including, but not limited to, the fire chief, assistant fire
chief, captain, engineer, driver, ladder person, hose person,
pipe person, and any other member of a regularly constituted
fire department. "Firefighter" also means a person employed by
the Office of the State Fire Marshal to conduct arson
investigations.

SB2138 - 3 - LRB103 27171 RLC 53541 b
(c) It is an affirmative defense to a violation of this
Section if a person resists or obstructs the performance of
one known by the person to be a firefighter by returning to or
remaining in a dwelling, residence, building, or other
structure to rescue or to attempt to rescue any person.
(d) A person shall not be subject to arrest for resisting
arrest under this Section unless there is an underlying
offense for which the person was initially subject to arrest.
(Source: P.A. 101-652, eff. 1-1-23; 102-28, eff. 6-25-21.)