Bill Text: NY A08677 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Relates to the "Heather D. Heyer act" which increases penalties where a vehicle is used as a weapon in a hate crime and makes it illegal to travel upon a roadway in a vehicle within 1000 feet of a protest.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-04-10 - enacting clause stricken [A08677 Detail]

Download: New_York-2017-A08677-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          8677
                               2017-2018 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                   September 25, 2017
                                       ___________
        Introduced by M. of A. HARRIS -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Transportation
        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  vehicle  and  traffic law and the penal law, in
          relation to the use of a vehicle as a weapon
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Heather D.
     2  Heyer act."
     3    §  2.  The  vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new section
     4  1229-e to read as follows:
     5    § 1229-e. Driving near protests. 1.  When  a  protest  with  over  one
     6  hundred  people in attendance is occurring on a roadway, with the excep-
     7  tion of police vehicles, emergency vehicles, and the vehicles of  people
     8  participating  in  the  protest, no driver of a vehicle shall drive upon
     9  such roadway within one thousand feet of the protest.
    10    2. Whenever any vehicle, with the exception of police vehicles,  emer-
    11  gency vehicles, and the vehicles of people participating in the protest,
    12  is  stopped  at  a  protest, the driver of any other vehicle approaching
    13  from the rear shall not overtake and pass such stopped vehicle.
    14    3. A violation of subdivision one or two of this section  shall  be  a
    15  traffic  infraction  and  shall be punishable by a fine of not less than
    16  three hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars. A  person  who
    17  operates  a  vehicle in violation of such subdivisions after having been
    18  convicted of a violation of such subdivisions within the preceding  five
    19  years  shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars
    20  nor more than seven hundred fifty dollars. A person who operates a vehi-
    21  cle in violation of such subdivisions after having been convicted two or
    22  more times of a violation of such subdivisions within the preceding  ten
    23  years  shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine
    24  of not less than seven hundred  fifty  dollars  nor  more  than  fifteen
    25  hundred dollars.
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13411-04-7
        A. 8677                             2
     1    § 3. Section 485.10 of the penal law is amended by adding a new subdi-
     2  vision 3-a to read as follows:
     3    3-a.  Notwithstanding  any  other  provision  of law, when a person is
     4  convicted of a hate crime pursuant to this article where the  underlying
     5  offense is vehicular manslaughter or a dangerous instrument is used as a
     6  weapon  against  a  person during the commission of such hate crime, the
     7  specified offense is a class A-1 felony with which the minimum period of
     8  the indeterminate sentence shall not be less than twenty-five years.
     9    § 4. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
    10  ing the date on which it shall have become a law.