{"id":20357,"date":"2017-01-19T17:04:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T23:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20357"},"modified":"2017-01-19T17:04:58","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T23:04:58","slug":"stronger-penalty-proposed-for-witness-tampering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20357","title":{"rendered":"Stronger penalty proposed for witness tampering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creating a stronger deterrent to the crime of witness tampering was discussed during a hearing of the Judiciary Committee Jan. 19.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sen. Robert Hilkemann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Currently, tampering with a witness in an attempt to change the outcome of a felony charge is categorized as a Class IV felony, which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison with one year of post-release supervision, a fine of up to $10,000 or both.<\/p>\n

LB102, introduced by Omaha Sen. Robert Hilkemann, would raise the offense to a Class II felony, which carries a penalty of one to 50 years in prison. Hilkemann said witness tampering is a serious problem impacting the successful prosecution of violent crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a state senator, it\u2019s my job to ensure that, as a state, we are tough on crime,\u201d he said. \u201c[LB102] would ensure witnesses feel safe in coming forward with valuable information so that serious and violent crimes could be effectively prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Kuhse, Omaha city prosecutor, supported the bill, saying a person facing life in prison for murder could convince a key witness to disappear, resulting in a dismissed case. If found guilty of tampering, that person would face up to only two years in prison under current law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasing the penalty from a Class IV to Class II felony would serve as a deterrent,\u201d Kuhse said. \u201cMaybe a little more thought goes on before engaging in tampering when they could be convicted of a more serious crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omaha Deputy Police Chief Greg Gonzalez also testified in support of the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get witnesses to come forward and then to not have them on the first day of trial is disheartening,\u201d he said. \u201c[The bill] would add credence to the system insofar as protecting the integrity of our witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandy Gruhlkey, representing the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, opposed LB102 saying the leap from a potential two-year sentence to a 50-year penalty is too extreme. Language regarding who may be charged under the bill also is too vague, she said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creating a stronger deterrent to the crime of witness tampering was discussed during a hearing of the Judiciary Committee Jan. 19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-20357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-robert-hilkemann"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20358,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20357\/revisions\/20358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}