WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
2023 REGULAR SESSION
Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 666
BY SENATORS WOELFEL AND CAPUTO
[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported on February 24, 2023]
 CS for SB 666
1 A BILL to amend and reenact §61-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating
2 to the crime of robbery; establishing the maximum term of years that may be imposed as
3 a penalty upon conviction of robbery in the first degree; and eliminating the separate crime
4 of bank robbery.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 2. CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-12. Robbery or attempted robbery; penalties.
1 (a) Any person who commits or attempts to commit robbery by: (1) Committing violence
2 to the person, including, but not limited to, partial strangulation or suffocation or by striking or
3 beating; or (2) uses the threat of deadly force by the presenting of a firearm or other deadly
4 weapon, is guilty of robbery in the first degree and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned
5 in a state correctional facility for a definite term of not less than ten 10 years nor more than 80
6 years.
7 (b) Any person who commits or attempts to commit robbery by placing the victim in fear
8 of bodily injury by means other than those set forth in subsection (a) of this section or any person
9 who commits or attempts to commit robbery by the use of any means designed to temporarily
10 disable the victim, including, but not limited to, the use of a disabling chemical substance or an
11 electronic shock device, is guilty of robbery in the second degree and, upon conviction thereof,
12 shall be imprisoned in a state correctional facility for not less than five years nor more than 18
13 years.
14 (c) If any person: (1) By force and violence, or by putting in fear, feloniously takes, or
15 feloniously attempts to take, from the person or presence of another any property or money or
16 any other thing of value belonging to, or in the care, custody, control, management or possession
17 of, any bank, he or she shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be confined in the
18 penitentiary not less than ten nor more than twenty years; and (2) if any person in committing, or
19 in attempting to commit, any offense defined in the preceding clause (1) of this subsection,
1
 CS for SB 666
20 assaults any person, or puts in jeopardy the life of any person by the use of a dangerous weapon
21 or device, disabling chemical substance or an electronic shock device, he or she shall be guilty
22 of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than ten 10 years
23 nor more than twenty-five 50 years
2


Statutes affected:
Introduced Version: 61-2-12
Committee Substitute: 61-2-12