COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 107
(By Senators Jenkins and Plymale)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 21, 2007.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §61-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to threatening to use a firearm or
other deadly weapon as an element of robbery in the first
degree.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §61-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-12. Robbery or attempted robbery; penalties.
(a) Any person who commits or attempts to commit robbery by:
(1) Committing violence to the person, including, but not
limited to, partial strangulation or suffocation or by
striking or beating; or
(2) Uses the threat of deadly force
by the presenting of a
firearm or other deadly weapon, by the use or threatened use of a
firearm or other deadly weapon is guilty of robbery in the first
degree and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in a state
correctional facility not less than ten years.
(b) Any person who commits or attempts to commit robbery by
placing the victim in fear of bodily injury by means other than
those set forth in subsection (a) of this section or any person who
commits or attempts to commit robbery by the use of any means
designed to temporarily disable the victim, including, but not
limited to, the use of a disabling chemical substance or an
electronic shock device, is guilty of robbery in the second degree
and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in a correctional
facility for not less than five years nor more than eighteen years.
(c) If any person:
(1) By force and violence, or by putting in fear, feloniously
takes, or feloniously attempts to take, from the person or presence
of another any property or money or any other thing of value
belonging to, or in the care, custody, control, management or
possession of, any bank, he
or she shall be guilty of a felony and,
upon conviction, shall be confined in
the penitentiary a
correctional facility not less than ten nor more than twenty years;
and
(2) If any person in committing, or in attempting to commit,
any offense defined in subdivision (1) of this subsection assaults
any person, or puts in jeopardy the life of any person, by the use
of a dangerous weapon or device disabling chemical substance or an
electronic shock device, he
or she shall be guilty of a felony and,
upon conviction, shall be confined in
the penitentiary a
correctional facility not less than ten years nor more than twenty-
five years.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to abolish the presenting of a firearm or other deadly weapon as an element of robbery in the
first degree.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)