SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 4373

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  AUGUST 24, 2020

      The Senate Judiciary Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 4373.

     This bill would provide for the consideration of youth as a mitigating factor for criminal sentencing, based on Recommendation 5 contained in the first annual report of the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission (the CSDC), created by P.L.2009, c.81 (C.2C:48A-1 et seq.) but delayed in being constituted and actively reviewing the State’s sentencing laws.  The bill would provide a court with the authority to consider as a mitigating factor that the defendant was under 26 years of age at the time the defendant committed the offense when determining the appropriate sentence to be imposed.  This would broaden the court’s consideration of age as a mitigating factor for determining sentences, as current law only permits as a mitigating factor directly related to age whether a “youthful defendant was substantially influenced” by a more mature person.

      This bill as reported is identical to Senate Bill No. 2592, also reported today by the committee.