ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

ASSEMBLY, No. 2166

 

with committee amendments

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED: SEPTEMBER 19, 1996

 

      The Assembly Judiciary Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 2166.

      As originally drafted, this bill would have imposed mandatory terms of imprisonment for the crime of arson depending on the degree of the crime if the target of the crime were a church, synagogue, temple or other place of worship.       

      The committee amended the bill to provide that if a person is convicted of arson and the structure which was the target of the offense is a church, synagogue, temple or other place of public worship that person would be guilty of a crime of the first degree. The amendments do not change the mandatory term of imprisonment of 15 years for this crime of the first degree which the bill in its original form would have imposed. However, the other mandatory terms are eliminated as unnecessary since any arson which targets a place of public worship will be a first degree crime under the amendments.

       The bill also provides that the court may not suspend or make any other noncustodial disposition of a person sentenced under the provisions of the bill.