Senator Klein Shepherds One-Punch Law Through State Senate
Senator Jeff Klein is once again standing up for victims of senseless violence and their families throughout New York with the recent passage of his bill in the State Senate. The legislation championed by Senator Klein would create a new felony charge for attacks that result in serious injury or death in cases involving aggravated assault. The bill was first proposed in 2015 after the tragic death of one of Senator Klein’s constituents, Ildefonso Romero, Jr., who was killed while he heroically attempted to intervene in a fight that broke out in front of his Bronx home that endangered a young woman. Mr. Romero, Jr. was sucker-punched, and after two days on life support, he succumbed to his injuries.The bill, which was named after this man for his selfless actions, would provide prosecutors with an additional tool to charge and convict perpetrators who use their fists as deadly weapons by creating a new class E felony offense that carries with it a maximum prison terms of four years. Currently, prosecutors can only charge attackers in these cases with misdemeanor assault charges despite the grave damage they cause and in the case of Mr. Romero, the perpetrator only received five month in prison for the deadly blow. Sadly, the tragic case of the Romero family is only one example, as police reports indicate that these “one-punch” crimes have been on the rise and videos illustrating them used on innocent and unaware victims have proliferated online. Senator Klein’s bill would provide the justice New Yorkers deserve.
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