It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Sections 11-23-1 and 11-23-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 11-23 entitled "Homicide" are hereby amended to read as follows:
11-23-1. Murder. -- The unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought is murder. Every murder perpetuated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of wilful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing, or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson or any violation of sections 11-4-2, 11-4-3, or 11-4-4, rape, any degree of sexual assault or child molestation, burglary or breaking and entering, robbery, kidnapping or committed during the course of the perpetration, or attempted perpetration, of felony manufacture, sale, delivery, or other distribution of a controlled substance otherwise prohibited by the provisions of chapter 28 of title 21, or while resisting arrest by, or under arrest of, any state trooper or police officer in the performance of his or her duty {ADD or committed against an assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general in the performance of his or her duty; ADD} or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him or her who is killed is murder in the first degree. Any other murder is murder in the second degree. The degree of murder may be charged in the indictment or information, and the jury may find the degree of murder, whether the same be charged in the indictment or information or not, or may find the defendant guilty of a lesser offense than that charged in the indictment or information, in accordance with the provisions of section 12-17-14.
11-23-2. Penalties for murder. -- Every person guilty of murder in the first degree shall be imprisoned for life. Every person guilty of murder in the first degree (1) committed intentionally while engaged in the commission of another capital offense or other felony for which life imprisonment may be imposed; or (2) committed in a manner creating a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon or device or substance which would normally be hazardous to the life of more than one person; or (3) committed at the direction of another person in return for money or any other thing of monetary value from that person; or (4) committed in a manner involving torture or an aggravated battery to the victim; or (5) committed against any member of the judiciary, law enforcement officer, corrections employee, {ADD assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general, ADD} or firefighter arising from the lawful performance of his or her official duties; or (6) committed by a person who at the time of the murder was committed to confinement in the adult correctional institutions or the state reformatory for women upon conviction of a felony; or (7) committed during the course of the perpetration or attempted perpetration of felony manufacture, sale, delivery or other distribution of a controlled substance otherwise prohibited by the provisions of chapter 28 of title 21, shall be imprisoned for life and if ordered by the court pursuant to chapter 19.2 of title 12 such person shall not be eligible for parole from imprisonment. Every person guilty of murder in the second degree shall be imprisoned for not less than ten (10) years and may be imprisoned for life.
SECTION 2. Section 11-5-5 of the General Laws in Chapter 11-5 entitled "Assaults" is hereby amended to read as follows:
11-5-5. Assault of police officers and other officials. -- Any person who shall make an assault or battery or both by knowingly and willfully either (a) striking or (b) spraying with a noxious chemical, commonly used as a personal defense weapon including Mace and an oleoresin capsicum product or like products strike a uniformed member of the state police or metropolitan park police, conservation officers, state properties patrol officer, probation and parole officers, state government case worker or investigator, judge of the supreme, superior, family or district court, sheriff, deputy sheriff, city or town police officer or firefighter, member of the Rhode Island State Marshals of the department of corrections, member of the capitol police, member of campus security force of state colleges and universities, Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus driver, or on-duty plainclothes member of the town, city or state police force, investigator of the Department of the Attorney General appointed pursuant to section 42-9-8.1, or member of the railroad police after proper identification is displayed, or uniformed dog officer, or out-of-state police officer called into Rhode Island under a cooperative agreement to provide mutual aid at the request of the state of Rhode Island pursuant to chapter 37 of title 42, {ADD or assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general, ADD} causing bodily injury while the officer or official is engaged in the performance of his or her duty, shall be deemed to have committed a felony, and shall be imprisoned not exceeding three (3) years or fined not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500) or both.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon passage and shall apply to crimes which occur after the date of passage.
