BILL NUMBER: S993
SPONSOR: ROLISON
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to eligibility for awards
for victims of a crime
 
PURPOSE OF THE BILL:
To allow the families of victims of crimes who subsequently commit
suicide to receive monetary awards from the Office of Victim Services
(OVS).
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Executive Law § 624, subdivision 1 by correcting a
grammatical error.
Section 2 amends Executive Law § 624 by adding a new subdivision 3 which
states that a victim of a crime who commits suicide within two years of
such crime shall be deemed to have died as a direct result of such
crime, unless OVS determines that the suicide was unrelated to the
crime.
Section 3 amends subdivision 5 of Executive Law § 631 by adding a new
paragraph (h) stating the OVS shall disregard the victim's responsibil-
ity for his or her own actions where the record shows that the victim
committed suicide within two years of the crime.
Section 4 sets forth the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Under current law, the Office of Victim Services (OVS) can provide
compensation to victims of crimes after an evaluation by the agency.
This compensation includes lost earnings, rehabilitation services, coun-
seling services, property damage, burial services, medical expenses and
other related services not covered by other insurance or benefit
programs, and more. But under current law, OVS is required to reject or
reduce claims in cases where the victim caused injury to him or herself.
This means that family members of victims who commit suicide after being
the victim of a crime are no longer eligible to receive the funds. This
is an unfair statute that this legislation seeks to correct.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24: A.5534/S.8180: Referred to Crime Victims, Crime and Correction
2021-22: A.52391/S.6333-A
2019-20: A.6845/S.5878
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
Office of Victim Services would likely pay out a small number of addi-
tional awards to the families of suicide victims. This may be several
thousand dollars per victim. The awards are partially funded through the
federal Department of Justice.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S993: 624 executive law, 631 executive law, 631(5) executive law