Bill Text: NJ S3652 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Upgrades strict liability vehicular homicide to crime of second degree.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-02-27 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee [S3652 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-S3652-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator KRISTIN M. CORRADO
District 40 (Bergen, Essex, Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Upgrades strict liability vehicular homicide to crime of second degree.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act upgrading the crime of strict liability vehicular homicide and amending P.L.2017, c.165.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.2017, c.165 (C.2C:11-5.3) is amended to read as follows:
1. a. Criminal homicide constitutes strict liability vehicular homicide when it is caused by driving a vehicle while intoxicated in violation of R.S.39:4-50 or operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol or drugs in violation of section 3 of P.L.1952, c.157 (C.12:7-46).
b. Strict liability vehicular homicide is a crime of the [third] second degree, but the presumption of nonimprisonment set forth in subsection e. of N.J.S.2C:44-1 shall not apply.
c. The provisions of N.J.S.2C:2-3 governing the causal relationship between conduct and result shall not apply in a prosecution under this section. For purposes of this offense, the defendant's act of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated in violation of R.S.39:4-50 or operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol or drugs in violation of section 3 of P.L.1952, c.157 (C.12:7-46) is the cause of death when:
(1) The operation of the motor vehicle or vessel is an antecedent but for which the death would not have occurred; and
(2) The death was not:
(a) too remote in its occurrence as to have a just bearing on the defendant's liability; or
(b) too dependent upon the conduct of another person which was unrelated to the defendant's operation of a motor vehicle or vessel as to have a just bearing on the defendant's liability.
d. It shall not be a defense to a prosecution under this section that the decedent contributed to his own death by reckless or negligent conduct or operation of a motor vehicle or vessel.
e. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to preclude, if the evidence so warrants, an indictment and conviction for any other offense.
(cf: P.L.2017, c.165, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill upgrades the crime of strict liability vehicular homicide from a crime of third degree to a crime of the second degree. Strict liability vehicular homicide is a criminal homicide when it is caused by driving a vehicle while intoxicated in violation of N.J.S.A.39:4-50 or operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol or drugs in violation of N.J.S.A.12:7-46.
Upgrading this crime to a crime of the second degree would bring the penalty for strict liability vehicular homicide in line with the penalties for reckless vehicular homicide, knowingly leaving the scene of an accident that results in the death of another, and knowingly leaving the scene of a boating accident that results in the death of another, which are crimes of the second degree.
The penalty for a crime of the third degree is three to five years imprisonment, a fine of up to $15,000, or both. The penalty for a crime of the second degree is five to ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to $150,000, or both.
