ASSEMBLY, No. 369

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblyman HOLZAPFEL

An Act concerning certain persistent offenders and amending P.L. , c. (now pending before the Legislature as Senate Bill No. 138).

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. Section 1 of P.L. , c. (now pending before the Legislature as Senate Bill No. 138) is amended to read as follows:

    1. a. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Persistent Offenders Accountability Act."

    b. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, a person convicted on a third or subsequent occasion of a crime under any of the following sections: N.J.S.2C:11-3; N.J.S.2C:11-4; subsection b. of N.J.S.2C:12-1; N.J.S.2C:13-1; N.J.S.2C:14-2; N.J.S.2C:15-1, or subsection a., b., or c. of N.J.S.2C:39-4, or under any similar statute of the United States or any other state for a crime that is substantially equivalent, shall be sentenced to a term of life imprisonment by the court, with no eligibility for parole.

    c. (1) Upon sentencing a person convicted on a first or second occasion of any crime listed in this act, the court shall inform the person orally and in writing of the provisions of this act, specifying that a third conviction will result in the imposition of a term of life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole.

    (2) The defendant shall be required to acknowledge the receipt of this information in writing, but the court's failure to provide the information or the defendant's failure to acknowledge its receipt shall have no effect on any sentence subsequently imposed pursuant to this act.

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill would amend the "Persistent Offenders Accountability Act," now pending as Senate Bill No. 138, to require that first-time and second-time offenders convicted of crimes which would trigger the life imprisonment term be given written notice of the law. The offender would be required to acknowledge receipt of the notice in writing. However, failure to receive such a notice or to acknowledge that a notice was received would have no effect on the person's sentence upon a third conviction.

Requires first-time and second-time offenders convicted of "three strikes" crimes to receive notice that a third conviction will result in life imprisonment.