SECOND REGULAR SESSION
93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES WILSON (130) (Sponsor), RUESTMAN, FISHER, MOORE AND WILSON (119) (Co-sponsors).
Pre-filed December 20, 2005 and copies ordered printed.
STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 574.115, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof three new sections relating to terrorism, with penalty provisions.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 574.115, RSMo, is repealed and three new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 574.115, 574.117, and 574.119, to read as follows:
574.115. 1. A person commits the crime of making a terrorist threat if such person communicates a threat, by any means, to commit any crime of violence or to cause an incident or condition involving danger to life, [communicates a] or knowingly makes a false report of an incident or condition involving danger to life, or knowingly causes a false belief or fear that an incident has occurred or that a condition exists involving danger to life:
(1) With the purpose of frightening [ten or more people] any person;
(2) With the purpose of causing serious public inconvenience or terror, including but not limited to the disruption of public services or the evacuation, quarantine or closure of any portion of a building, inhabitable structure, place of assembly or facility of transportation; or
(3) With reckless disregard of the risk of causing serious public inconvenience or terror, including but not limited to the disruption of public services or the evacuation, quarantine or closure of any portion of a building, inhabitable structure, place of assembly or facility of transportation; or
(4) With criminal negligence with regard to the risk of causing serious public inconvenience or terror, including but not limited to the disruption of public services or the evacuation, quarantine or closure of any portion of a building, inhabitable structure, place of assembly or facility of transportation.
2. Making a terrorist threat is a class C felony unless committed under subdivision (3) of subsection 1 of this section in which case it is a class D felony or unless committed under subdivision (4) of subsection 1 of this section in which case it is a class A misdemeanor.
3. For the purpose of this section, "by any means" includes verbal communications, written communications, or communications through the use of an electronic device; "crime of violence" includes any crime that involves the use of force; and "threat" includes an express or implied threat.
4. A person who acts in good faith with the purpose to prevent harm does not commit a crime pursuant to this section.
574.117. 1. A person commits the crime of threatening the use of a weapon of mass destruction if such person knowingly makes a threat to an identifiable group to use a weapon of mass destruction with a specific intent that the statement made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby cause that person reasonably to be in substantial fear of his or her own safety, or of his or her immediate family's safety.
2. As used in this section "threat" includes express or implied threats and "identifiable group" includes but is not limited to law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and ethnic or religious organizations.
3. As used in this section "weapon of mass destruction" means any biological or chemical agent or substance or any radioactive material capable of causing serious physical injury as defined in section 565.002, RSMo, serious illness, or death when unleashed by any means, or any explosive or incendiary device as defined pursuant to section 574.070, RSMo, or any explosive nuclear device.
4. Threatening the use of a weapon of mass destruction is a class C felony for a first offense and a class B felony for a second or subsequent offense.
574.119. 1. A person commits the crime of computer dissemination of information to promote a terrorist act if such person knowingly furnishes or disseminates through a computer or computer network any picture, photograph, drawing or similar visual or verbal description of any information with the intent to encourage, solicit, or otherwise promote a terrorist act.
2. As used in this section "terrorist act" means:
(1) Any act that is intended to cause or create or does cause or create a risk of death or serious physical injury to one or more persons;
(2) Any act that disables or destroys the usefulness or operation of any communications system;
(3) Any act or any series of two or more acts committed in furtherance of a single intention, scheme, or design that disables or destroys the usefulness or operation of a computer network, computers, computer programs, or data used by any industry, by any class of business, or by five or more businesses or by the federal government, state government, any local unit of government, a public utility, a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, a national defense contractor, or a manufacturer of chemical or biological products used in or in connection with agricultural production;
(4) Any act that disables or causes substantial damage to or destruction of any structure or facility used in connection with ground, air, or water transportation, the production or distribution of electricity, gas, oil, or other fuel, the treatment of sewage, or the treatment or distribution of water, or controlling the flow of any body of water;
(5) Any act that causes substantial damage to or destruction of livestock or to crops or a series of two or more acts committed in furtherance of a single intention, scheme, or design, which in the aggregate, causes substantial damage to or destruction of livestock or crops;
(6) Any act that causes substantial damage to or destruction of any hospital or any building or facility used by the federal government, state government, any unit of local government or by a national defense contractor or by a public utility, a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, a manufacturer of chemical or biological products used in or in connection with agricultural production or the storage or processing of agricultural products or the preparation of agricultural products for food or food products intended for resale or for feed for livestock;
(7) Any act that causes substantial damage to any building containing five or more businesses of any type or to any building in which ten or more people reside;
(8) Any act that uses a burning or flaming cross or other burning or flaming symbol or flambeau with the intent to terrorize another or another's household;
(9) Any act that involves shooting or throwing an object at a conveyance which is being operated or which is occupied by passengers which is not done in the commission of an otherwise lawful act; or
(10) Any act that involves the release of any hazardous substance or any simulated hazardous substance under the guise of a hazardous substance for the purpose of terrorizing another or of causing the evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or a facility of public transportation, or otherwise causing a serious public inconvenience or in negligent or reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience.
3. Computer dissemination of information to promote a terrorist act is a class B felony.
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