BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1280|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1280
Author: Villines (R), et al
Amended: 7/15/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/29/10
AYES: Leno, Cogdill, Cedillo, Hancock, Huff, Steinberg,
Wright
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 11-0, 8/12/10
AYES: Kehoe, Ashburn, Alquist, Corbett, Emmerson, Leno,
Price, Walters, Wolk, Wyland, Yee
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not relevant
SUBJECT : Child abuse sentencing: child becoming comatose
or suffering
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill provides that where a person with care
and custody of a child assaults the child through force
likely to produce great bodily injury and the child becomes
comatose due to brain injury or suffers permanent
paralysis, as defined, the person shall be punished by a
prison term of life with the possibility of parole. This
bill is contingent on the passage of AB 1844 (Fletcher).
ANALYSIS : Existing law states that any person having
care and custody of a child under the age of eight, who
CONTINUED
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assaults the child by means of force that to a reasonable
person would be likely to produce great bodily injury,
resulting in the child's death, is guilty of a felony
punishable by 25-years-to-life in the state prison.
(Section 273ab of the Penal Code [PEN])
Existing law provides that any person who under
circumstances likely to cause great bodily harm or death
willfully causes any child to suffer or inflicts
unjustifiable pain or mental suffering on a child, causes
the health of a child to be injured, or causes a child to
be placed in a situation where his or her health may be
endangered shall be imprisoned in a county jail not
exceeding one year or in the state prison for two, four or
six years. (PEN Section 273a, subd. (a))
Existing law articulates that any person who under
circumstances other than those likely to cause great bodily
harm or death willfully causes any child to suffer or
inflicts unjustifiable pain or mental suffering on a child,
causes the health of a child to be injured, or causes a
child to be placed in a situation where his/her health may
be endangered is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six
months in the county jail. (PEN Section 273a, subd. (b))
Existing law declares any person who willfully inflicts
upon any child any cruel or inhuman corporal punishment or
injury resulting in a traumatic condition shall be punished
by imprisonment in the state prison for two, four, or six
years, or in the county jail not exceeding one year; by a
fine up to $6,000; or by both that imprisonment and fine.
(PEN Section 273, subd. (d))
Existing law provides that any person convicted of child
abuse, who under circumstances likely to cause great bodily
harm or death, willfully inflicts injury resulting in
death, or having care and custody of a child, under
circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death,
causes that child to suffer injury resulting in death shall
receive a four-year sentence enhancement for each
violation. (PEN Section 12022.95)
Existing law states that any person who personally inflicts
great bodily injury on any person under the age of five in
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the commission of a felony offense shall be punished by an
additional and consecutive term of four, five, or six years
in the state prison. (PEN Section 12022.7, subd. (d))
Existing law declares that any person who personally
inflicts great bodily injury on any person other than an
accomplice in the commission of a felony or attempted
felony which causes the victim to become comatose due to
brain injury or to suffer paralysis of a permanent nature,
shall be punished by an additional and consecutive term of
imprisonment in the state prison for five years. As used
in this subdivision, "paralysis" is defined as a major or
complete loss of motor function resulting from injury to
the nervous system or to a muscular mechanism. (PEN
Section 12022.7, subd. (b))
This bill creates a felony, punishable by imprisonment for
life with the possibility of parole, for any person who,
having the care and custody of a child who is under eight
years of age, inflicts great bodily injury which causes the
victim to become comatose due to brain injury or to suffer
paralysis of a permanent nature.
This bill defines "paralysis" as a major or complete loss
of motor function resulting from injury to the nervous
system or to a muscular mechanism.
This bill is contingent upon the enactment of AB 1844
(Fletcher).
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12
2012-13 Fund
New felony Unknown; potentially
substantialGeneral
incarceration costs beginning in
2020
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SUPPORT : (Verified 8/16/10)
Child Abuse Prevention Center
Crime Victims United of California
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/16/10)
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the California
District Attorneys Association:
"The punishment for the crime of felony child abuse,
under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great
bodily injury is two, four, or six years in prison.
(Pen. Code 273a, subd. (a).) The penalty is the same
even when the crime results in permanent injury or
disability to a child. In contrast, the penalty for the
crime of felony child abuse, under the same
circumstances, resulting in death is 25 years to life.
The chasm between these punishments ignores the reality
that some child victims experience permanent injury or
disability but do not perish.
"This past summer a defendant received 10 years in state
prison for felony child abuse under Section 273a,
subdivision (a), with a great bodily injury enhancement
under PC Section 12022.7, subdivision (d). The defendant
shook the then one-year-old child so violently that the
child (now four) suffers from permanent brain damage and
permanent partial paralysis.
"The current maximum punishment for felony child abuse
that results in permanent injury or disability is
outrageously inadequate considering the unconscionable
nature of the crime and the impact the perpetrator's
actions have on their victim's future quality of life.
In order to respond to this abhorrent crime, California
needs a statute with a penalty that more justly reflects
the severity of an assault on a child resulting in the
greatest degree of injury short of death. A punishment
of 15 years to life for this crime is appropriate; it is
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less than the punishment for an assault that results in
the death of a child, but more than the punishment for
the crime of felony child abuse that results in
nonpermanent injury."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : According to the California
Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ):
"By creating a new crime, the proposed amendments would
punish these assaults on the same level as an assault
resulting in death, a second-degree murder. We believe
that this escalation in criminal liability is
unacceptable and inappropriate, given the definition of
the crime. 'Force that to a reasonable person would be
likely to produce great bodily injury' is a vague
standard and makes no distinction between different
varieties of intent. Under this standard, accidental
infliction of disabling injury could come within the
statute, and be punished with a life sentence as if the
act were intentional. This does not make sense.
"Acknowledging the tragedy of physical abuse of children,
CACJ and its members do not support creating new crimes
and augmenting punishment where the standard of proof
does not justify the increase in punishment. In
addition, we believe that existing laws already provide a
framework to punish child abuse according to the
individual circumstances of the crime. Nothing in this
proposed legislation indicates that making a new crime
which dramatically increases punishment would deter or
prevent the physical abuse of children in the future."
RJG:mw 8/16/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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