The Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee heard Sen. Freeman’s SB 240 on terrorism and extortion. The bill does the following:
- repeals and replaces in a new article the offense of possession, use, or manufacture of a weapon of mass destruction, agricultural terrorism, terroristic mischief, and terroristic deception
- specifies that “terrorism” includes the unlawful threat or use of force to affect the conduct of a government
- makes providing material support to a terrorist a Level 5 felony, and increases the penalty to a Level 2 felony if the material support includes the commission of a felony or if the act of terrorism is reasonably likely to cause serious bodily injury to another person
- makes concealing or harboring a person who has committed a terrorist act a Level 6 felony, and increases the penalty to a Level 3 felony if the terrorist act resulted in serious bodily injury or death
- makes committing a criminal offense with the intent to benefit a terrorist organization or to increase the person’s standing in a terrorist organization a Level 5 felony, and increases the penalty to a Level 3 felony if the offense involves the unlawful use of a firearm or a weapon of mass destruction
- provides that a person who commits an offense with the intent to assist another person in the commission of a felony terrorist offense is subject to an additional sentence enhancement equal to the sentence imposed for the underlying offense
- makes it extortion, a Class A misdemeanor, to threaten to expose any person to hatred, contempt, disgrace, or ridicule, or to falsely harm the credit or business reputation of any person, with the intent that the other person engage in conduct against the other person’s will, and enhances the penalty under certain circumstances
The bill was amended by consent to specify that a person commits intimidation even if the threatening communication is made to a person other than the person who is the subject of the threat, to require the enhancement for threats made to certain persons be connected with their occupation, and to remove a provision relating to exposing a person to hatred, contempt, disgrace, or ridicule. The amended bill passed 7-0.
Read the bill at http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2019/bills/senate/240