Sponsored by:
Assemblyman DAN HUTCHISON
District 4 (Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester)
Assemblywoman SHANIQUE SPEIGHT
District 29 (Essex and Hudson)
Assemblyman REGINALD W. ATKINS
District 20 (Union)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblymen Wimberly, Sampson, Karabinchak, Scharfenberger and Assemblywoman Flynn
SYNOPSIS
Limits negotiated plea agreements for crime of burglary when firearm involved.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning burglary and amending N.J.S.2C:18-2.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. N.J.S.2C:18-2 is amended to read as follows:
2C:18-2. Burglary. a. Burglary defined. A person is guilty of burglary if, with purpose to commit an offense therein or thereon he:
(1) Enters a research facility, structure, or a separately secured or occupied portion thereof unless the structure was at the time open to the public or the actor is licensed or privileged to enter;
(2) Surreptitiously remains in a research facility, structure, or a separately secured or occupied portion thereof knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so; or
(3) Trespasses in or upon utility company property where public notice prohibiting trespass is given by conspicuous posting, or fencing or other enclosure manifestly designed to exclude intruders.
b. Grading. Burglary is a crime of the second degree if in the course of committing the offense, the actor:
(1) Purposely, knowingly or recklessly inflicts, attempts to inflict or threatens to inflict bodily injury on anyone; or
(2) Is armed with or displays what appear to be explosives or a deadly weapon.
Otherwise burglary is a crime of the third degree. An act shall be deemed "in the course of committing" an offense if it occurs in an attempt to commit an offense or in immediate flight after the attempt or commission.
c. A prosecution for a violation of a crime pursuant to paragraph (2) of subsection b. of this section shall not be subject to a negotiated plea agreement for a lesser term of imprisonment or fine than as prescribed in N.J.S.2C:43-3 and N.J.S.2C:43-6 if the actor, in the course of committing the offense, used a firearm. Firearm shall mean the same as that term is defined in subsection f. of 2C:39-1.
(cf: P.L.2009, c.283, s.2)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill prohibits the prosecution from entering into a plea agreement for a lesser term of imprisonment or fine for the crime of burglary when a firearm is involved.
Under current law, it is a crime of the second degree if, in the course of committing the offense of burglary, the actor: (1) purposely, knowingly or recklessly inflicts, attempts to inflict, or threatens to inflict bodily injury on anyone; or (2) is armed with or displays what appears to be explosives or a deadly weapon.
Under the bill, a person convicted of burglary while armed with a firearm would be ineligible to enter into a negotiated plea agreement to receive a lesser term of imprisonment or a fine.
Firearm is defined as any handgun, rifle, shotgun, machine gun, automatic or semi-automatic rifle, or any gun, device or instrument in the nature of a weapon from which may be fired or ejected any solid projectable ball, slug, pellet, missile or bullet, or any gas, vapor or other noxious thing, by means of a cartridge or shell or by the action of an explosive or the igniting of flammable or explosive substances. Firearm also includes, without limitation, any firearm which is in the nature of an air gun, spring gun or pistol or other weapon of a similar nature in which the propelling force is a spring, elastic band, carbon dioxide, compressed or other gas or vapor, air or compressed air, or is ignited by compressed air, and ejecting a bullet or missile smaller than three-eighths of an inch in diameter, with sufficient force to injure a person.