Sara's Law

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1950 To authorize the court to impose a reduced sentence for a youthful victim offender, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 28, 2019 Mr. WESTERMAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To authorize the court to impose a reduced sentence for a youthful victim offender, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as ‘‘Sara’s Law’’. 4 SEC. 2. SENTENCING YOUTHFUL VICTIM OFFENDERS. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3553 of chapter 227 of 6 title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 7 end the following: 8 ‘‘(h) SENTENCING YOUTHFUL VICTIM OFFEND- 9 ERS.— 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:27 Apr 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1950.IH H1950 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 1950 IH ‘‘(1) STATUTORY MINIMUMS.—In the case of a 1 youthful victim offender, the court shall have the au- 2 thority to impose a sentence that is below a level es- 3 tablished by statute as a minimum sentence so as to 4 consider the effect of trauma on the offender’s con- 5 duct. 6 ‘‘(2) SUSPENSION OF SENTENCE.—In the case 7 of a youthful offender, the court shall have the au- 8 thority to suspend any portion of an imposed sen- 9 tence. 10 ‘‘(3) YOUTHFUL VICTIM OFFENDER DE- 11 FINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘youthful vic- 12 tim offender’ means an individual who— 13 ‘‘(A) has not attained the age of 18; and 14 ‘‘(B) has been convicted of a violent of- 15 fense against a person who the court finds, by 16 clear and convincing evidence, engaged in con- 17 duct against such individual, not earlier than 1 18 year before such violent offense, that is an of- 19 fense under section 1591 or an offense under 20 chapter 71, 109A, 110, or 117.’’. 21 (b) APPLICATION.—The amendments made by this 22 section shall apply only to a conviction entered on or after 23 the date of the enactment of this Act. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:27 Apr 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1950.IH H1950 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 1950 IH SEC. 3. DIRECTIVE TO THE SENTENCING COMMISSION. 1 Pursuant to its authority under section 994(p) of title 2 28, United States Code, and in accordance with this sec- 3 tion, the United States Sentencing Commission shall re- 4 view and amend, if appropriate, its guidelines and its pol- 5 icy statements with respect to youthful victim offenders 6 to ensure that the guidelines and policy statements are 7 consistent with the amendments made by section 2. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:27 Apr 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1950.IH H1950 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS