BILL NUMBER: S1933
SPONSOR: WEBER
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to enacting "Paula's law"
 
PURPOSE:
"Paula's Law" is designed to ensure that persons who molest and then
murder a child under the age of eighteen will never be released from
prison.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section I: establishes the short title of this act, "Paula's law."
Section II: states that in enacting this bill, it is the intent of the
legislature to expand "Joan's Law."
Section III: amends Subdivision 5 of § 125.25 of the penal law, expand-
ing the age range of victims protected under Joan's law from under 14
years-old to under 18 years old.
Section IV: establishes the effective date
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, in New York State, there is no parole available to those who
sexually assault and murder a child under age 14. This legislation,
named for Paula Bohovesky, would expand that age range to a child under
the age of eighteen.
In 1980, sixteen-year-old Bohovesky was attacked and killed by Richard
LaBarbera and Robert McCain as she was walking home from the library
where she worked part-time in Pearl River. Both LaBarbera and McCain
were convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder. In
2019, a parole board voted to release LaBarbera. A parole board released
McCain in 2021.
This legislation would prevent the parole of anyone who sexually
assaults and murders a child under 18 years old.
This is an expansion of "Joan's Law", which was enacted in 2004 and
denied parole in these circumstances for child victims under the age of
fourteen. Joan D'Alessandro was 7-years-old and disappeared after deliv-
ering Girl Scout cookies to the Hillsdale home of a high school science
teacher who later confessed to her murder.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-2022: A.6017/5.3963
2019-2020: A.8524/5.6633-A
 
FISCAL, IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become a law.

Statutes affected:
S1933: 125.25 penal law, 125.25(5) penal law