COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 60
(By Senators Jenkins and Plymale)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 21, 2008.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §61-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to using or threatening to use a
firearm or other deadly weapon as an element of robbery in the
first degree; and providing criminal penalties.
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) Using the threat of deadly force by the
presenting of 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
shall be or she is 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
the preceding clause 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
shall be or
she is 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.)