SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 6782

As Reported By Senate Committee On:

Judiciary, February 7, 2002

Title:  An act relating to robbery.

Brief Description:  Increasing penalties for bank robbery.

Sponsors:  Senators Kline, Hochstatter, Keiser and Oke.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Judiciary:  2/7/02 [DPA].

SENATE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

Majority Report:  Do pass as amended.

Signed by Senators Kline, Chair; Kastama, Vice Chair; Costa, Johnson, Poulsen and Zarelli.

Staff:  Aldo Melchiori (786‑7439)

Background:  A robbery is committed when a person unlawfully takes personal property from other persons or in their presence against their will by the use or threatened use of immediate force, violence, or fear of injury to those persons or their property or the person or property of anyone.  It is robbery in the first degree if in the commission of a robbery or of immediate flight therefrom, the offender:  (a) is armed with a deadly weapon; (b) displays what appears to be a firearm or other deadly weapon; or (c) inflicts bodily injury.  Robbery in the first degree is a class A felony ranked at level IX on the sentencing grid (31 to 41 months for a first offense).  It is robbery in the second degree if a person commits robbery under any other circumstances.  Robbery in the second degree is a class B felony ranked at level IV on the sentencing grid (three to nine months for a first offense).  Robbery in the first and second degree are also ranked juvenile offenses and may result in trial as an adult under certain circumstances.

Both degrees of robbery are crimes of violence, violent offenses, crimes against persons, and  "most serious" offenses for the purpose of sentencing as a persistent offender.  Both offenses also are predicate offenses for the purposes of the criminal profiteering act.

Summary of Amended Bill:  The act is known as the Robbery Act of 2002.

Amended Bill Compared to Original Bill:  The substantive sections of the bill were removed.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Requested on February 5, 2002.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  The most prevalent violent crime in Washington is bank robbery.  This bill increases the penalties for robbery within a financial institution.  The bill combines two good policy goals:  increasing penalties for bank robbery and saving precious tax dollars.

Testimony Against:  Robbery is the gateway to more violent crime.  Forty-five percent of people incarcerated under the three strikes law have a prior robbery in the second degree and this bill would remove it as a predicate offense.

Testified:  PRO: Dan Kieling, WBA, Wells Fargo Bank; Denny Eliason, WBA; CON: Dave LaCourse, Washington Citizens for Justice.