HB 1516-FN - AS INTRODUCED
2000 SESSION
09/01
HOUSE BILL 1516-FN
COMMITTEE: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
This bill establishes a crime with a class B felony penalty for overzealous prosecution.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
00-2336
09/01
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand
AN ACT relative to prosecutorial conduct.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Section; Prosecutorial Conduct. Amend RSA 643 by inserting after section 2 the following new section:
643:3 Prosecutorial Conduct.
I. A public servant, as defined in RSA 640:2, II, who has the authority to prosecute a crime and who is overzealous in his or her prosecution shall be guilty of a class B felony.
II. In this section "overzealous" means to act beyond the prosecutor's authority for personal or political gain and to the extent that the prosecutor knowingly denies the rights of a defendant.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2001.
LBAO
00-2336
12/16/99
HB 1516-FN - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to prosecutorial conduct.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Administrative Office of the Courts, Judicial Council, and the Departments of Corrections and Justice have determined this bill may increase state expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2001 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on county and local expenditures or on state, county and local revenue.
METHODOLOGY:
The Administrative Office of the Courts stated this bill creates a new category of class B felony offense. The Office has determined the legislation will have little, if any, fiscal impact on the Branch as it will not significantly impact caseload.
The Judicial Council assumed that any cases arising from the enactment of this law for which the Indigent Defense Fund may be liable, will, in the first instance be handled by the Public Defender or contract attorneys who accept these cases on a fixed fee basis of $687.50 for each felony charge. If an assigned counsel attorneys must be used, the hourly rate of $60, with a fee cap of $3,000 for felony cases will apply. If a motion to exceed the fee cap is approved and/or "services other than counsel" are approved, these will also be chargeable to the Indigent Defense Fund. The Council is unable to predict the number of cases or trials which may arise as a result of the passage of this legislation, therefor, they are unable to estimate the dollar amount of the anticipated costs of such representation.
The Department of Corrections is unable to predict how many, if any, individuals would be incarcerated as result of this legislation. The average cost of incarceration for FY 1999 was $19,358 per inmate. The average cost of probation/parole supervision was $842 per inmate.
The Department of Justice has stated it is not possible to determine the fiscal impact, as the number of instances to which this would apply are unknown.