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Senate Bill S5290

2025-2026 Legislative Session

Requires that a defendant must be over twenty-five years old to be guilty of felony murder

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Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Codes Committee

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2025-S5290 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:
A327
Current Committee:
Senate Codes
Law Section:
Penal Law
Laws Affected:
Amd §125.25, Pen L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:
2021-2022: S5353, A6840
2023-2024: S4346, A3892

2025-S5290 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Requires that a defendant must be over twenty-five years old to be guilty of felony murder.

2025-S5290 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2025-S5290 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf 

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   5290
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 20, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by Sen. SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes
 
 AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to requiring that a defendant
   must be over twenty-five years old to be guilty of felony murder
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. The opening paragraph and paragraph (d) of subdivision 3 of
 section 125.25 of the penal law, the opening  paragraph  as  amended  by
 chapter  23  of the laws of 2024 and paragraph (d) as amended by chapter
 477 of the laws of 1990, are amended to read as follows:
   Acting either alone or with one or more other persons, [he] A  DEFEND-
 ANT  BEING MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OLD commits or attempts to commit
 robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson, rape in the first degree, a  crime
 formerly  defined  in  section 130.50 of this title, the crime of sexual
 abuse in the first degree, aggravated sexual abuse, escape in the  first
 degree,  or  escape  in  the second degree, and, in the course of and in
 furtherance of such crime or of immediate  flight  therefrom,  [he]  THE
 DEFENDANT,  or another participant, if there be any, causes the death of
 a person other than one of the participants; except that in  any  prose-
 cution  under  this subdivision, in which the defendant was not the only
 participant in the underlying crime, it is an affirmative  defense  that
 the defendant:
   (d)  Had  no  reasonable  ground to believe that any other participant
 intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious phys-
 ical injury[; or].
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
 
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD00960-01-5

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