Enacts "Ildefonso Romero's law" to establish the felony offense of aggravated assault for the causation of serious physical injury to or death of, as the case may be, any person, with intent to cause physical injury to such person or a third person.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2924
SPONSOR: Pheffer Amato TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the felony
offense of aggravated assault
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Enacts "Idelfonso Romero's law" to establish the new felony offense of
aggravated assault.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Provides that the law shall be called "Idelfonso Romero's
law"
Section 2: Adds a new section 120.00-a to the penal law creating the new
class E felony of aggravated assault to apply when a person commits the
current A misdemeanor offense of assault in the third degree and the
result is a serious physical injury or death of another person.
Section 3: Effective date
JUSTIFICATION:
This legislation is named in memory of Idelfonso Romero, a 59year-old
man who was killed in June 2014 by a single punch to the head while
trying to break up a fight outside his Bronx home. Despite the fact the
Mr. Romero's killer committed an intentional assault that resulted in
his death, he was only charged with the misdemeanor offense of third
degree assault because the crime was committed without the use of a
deadly weapon or dangerous instrument and there was insufficient
evidence of an intent to cause serious physical injury or death. Under
current law, a death caused by recklessness or criminally negligent
conduct is punished far more severely, as the class C felony of second
degree manslaughter or the class E felony of criminally negligent homi-
cide respectively, than a death caused by an intentional violent act
intended to cause physical harm.The increasing trend of one-punch
attacks designed to knock out their victims with a single blow to the
head shows no sign of slowing down, as evidenced by police reports and
the widespread availability of video tutorials on the internet. This
bill would increase the penalties for these vicious and intentional
attacks from an A misdemeanor to an E felony if a death or serious inju-
ry o ccurs as a result.This heightened penalty reflects our growing
understanding of the dangers of head trauma and the damage that can be
inflicted with a single punch, and will finally treat these crimes as
the life threatening acts they truly are.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become a law..
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2924
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 1, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PHEFFER AMATO -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the felony
offense of aggravated assault
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 "Ildefonso Romero's law".
3 § 2. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 120.00-a to read
4 as follows:
5 § 120.00-a Aggravated assault.
6 A person is guilty of aggravated assault when:
7 1. With intent to cause physical injury to another person, he or she
8 causes serious physical injury or death to such person or to a third
9 person; or
10 2. He or she recklessly causes serious physical injury or death to
11 another person; or
12 3. With criminal negligence, he or she causes serious physical injury
13 or death to another person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous
14 instrument.
15 Aggravated assault is a class E felony.
16 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
17 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04104-01-3
