Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. (8th Senate District) announced recently that the New York State Senate passed legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for class B violent felonies. The legislation would also provide convicted offenders DNA testing opportunities, and expand the state's DNA Identification Index.

"This legislation ensures that dangerous criminals cannot use a loophole to evade justice," said Fuschillo. "These are violent offenses committed by violent individuals. Particularly with the remarkable advances in DNA technology, there is no sound reason that they should escape punishment after five years if the capability exists to conclusively identify and convict them."

New York State already exempts class A violent felonies, such as murder, first degree arson, and first degree kidnapping from the statute of limitations. This legislation will extend that exemption to class B violent felonies which includes crimes such as first degree attempted murder, first degree manslaughter, first degree rape and sodomy, first degree assault, second degree kidnapping, first degree aggravated sexual abuse, and sexual contact against a child in the first degree. Under current law, these felonies are subject to a five-year statute of limitations. New York would join at least a dozen other states, including Rhode Island and New Jersey, which have no statute of limitations restricting the prosecution of serious felonies.

This measure expands the current Criminal Procedure Law to provide authorization to request DNA testing of evidence after conviction regardless of when it occurs. The legislation specifies that if the judgment was entered after 1995, the defendant will be required to demonstrate that the desired DNA test results could not have been produced at the original trial.

Also, this legislation would expand methods of identification to facilitate the use of an individual's DNA to help identify unknown dead and missing persons. Present law provides only for the release of dental records or fingerprints to aid in the identification of missing or deceased persons, which can pose a problem for law enforcement officials if such records are unavailable.

New York's DNA Identification Index has proven an effective crime-fighting tool, but according to Fuschillo, it currently includes DNA samples from only 65 percent of all convicted felons. The legislation passed by the Senate would expand the index to include all offenders convicted and sentenced for a felony.

"DNA technology has been invaluable in our efforts in reducing crime, improving our criminal justice system and providing our law enforcement officials with the necessary tools they need to continue to do their jobs effectively and efficiently," said Fuschillo. "This legislation will allow New York State to take full advantage of the tremendous advances in DNA technology."

Senator Fuschillo announced recently that the Senate has passed a comprehensive legislative package aimed at fighting unwanted cellular phone messages and computer e-mail known as "spam."

"This is the most comprehensive package of anti-spam legislation in any state in the nation," Fuschillo said. "Communications technology is advancing rapidly, as well as the ability of advertisers to annoy people with unwanted ads in inboxes, cell phones and pop-ups on websites. It seems like there is simply no end. It's hurting business productivity, costing our economy billions of dollars, slowing down Internet services, and threatening the very future of e-mail communication. This legislation tells spammers that enough is enough and gives computer users the tools to fight back and stop spam."

According to Fuschillo, the Anti-Spam Act of 2003 contains provisions to combat spam by making it easier for computer users to unsubscribe themselves from spam e-mail lists. Commercial e-mails would now be required to contain a line enabling spam recipients to unsubscribe from the sender's list, significantly reducing the amount of unwanted messages crowding their inbox. Other states have already enacted similar legislation.

Fuschillo stated that violators of any provision of the Anti-Spam Act would be subject to a fine of up to $500 per violation.

Websites that employ pop-up ads (ads which open a separate window in your browser) must contain a process to disable the ads on that site. Once this legislation is enacted, New York will be the first state in the nation to address the issue of nuisance pop-up ads.

Another provision prohibits spam sent to cell phones and wireless devices that have text messaging capability. Cell phone spam has become a major problem in Japan and Canada, and is starting to turn up in the United States. This provision would keep New York ahead of a potential problem.

Other parts of the legislative package require commercial e-mails with sexually-oriented content to contain a label in the subject line ("ADV; ADLT") to indicate the message is unsuitable for minors. The legislation would also improve penalties on spam senders who include false or misleading information in their messages; a study by the Federal Trade Commission concluded that up to 66 percent of spam messages included false or deceptive information such as a misleading subject line or false claims made in the text of the e-mail.

The legislative package also broadens the Do Not Call Registry, originally sponsored by Senator Fuschillo to combat telemarketing, to include computer users who do not want to receive unsolicited spam.

Another provision sponsored by Senator Kemp Hannon establishes a state Internet privacy law which would ensure that website operators who tell the public that they have privacy policies when collecting personal information to adhere to those privacy policies.

The state would also have the ability to enforce privacy protection rules, and could fine e-vendors who violate promises not to share or sell personal information, up to $1,000 per violation.

"Neither federal nor state law protects the privacy of Internet users," said Hannon. "Under this bill, Internet users' privacy would be protected by meaningful enforcement mechanisms and businesses would benefit by potential customers feeling secure enough to conduct business with them, because consumer choices would, for the first time, include protecting their privacy with a clearly enforceable law."

The legislation was sent to the Assembly.