PRINTER'S NO. 164
No. 167 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY DENT, LEMMOND, BELL, COSTA, SCHWARTZ, WAUGH,
STAPLETON, STOUT, SLOCUM, WOZNIAK, KASUNIC, MURPHY AND
ROBBINS, JANUARY 19, 1999
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY, JANUARY 19, 1999
AN ACT
1 Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania
2 Consolidated Statutes, further providing for terroristic
3 threats and for harassment and stalking.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Sections 2706(a) and 2709(a) of Title 18 of the
7 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes are amended to read:
8 § 2706. Terroristic threats.
9 (a) Offense defined.--A person is guilty of a misdemeanor of
10 the first degree if he threatens [to commit any crime of
11 violence with intent to terrorize another or to cause evacuation
12 of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public
13 transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public
14 inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing
15 such terror or inconvenience.] in person, by telephone, in
16 writing, electronically, including, but not limited to,
17 electronic mail and communications via the Internet, facsimilie
18 transmission, telex or other similar transmission:
1 (1) to commit any crime of violence against another
2 person which is directly or indirectly received by the other
3 person and which causes annoyance or alarm to the other
4 person; or
5 (2) to commit any crime of violence which causes
6 evacuation of a building, place of assembly or facility of
7 public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public
8 inconvenience.
9 * * *
10 § 2709. Harassment and stalking.
11 (a) Harassment.--A person commits the crime of harassment
12 when, with intent to harass, annoy or alarm another person:
13 (1) he strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects him
14 to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same;
15 or
16 (2) he follows a person in or about a public place or
17 places; or
18 (3) he engages in a course of conduct or repeatedly
19 commits acts which alarm or seriously annoy such other person
20 and which serve no legitimate purpose[.], including, but not
21 limited to:
22 (i) communicating in person, by telephone, in
23 writing or by electronic mail, facsimilie transmission,
24 telex or other similar transmission to or about such
25 other person using any lewd, lascivious, threatening or
26 indecent words, language, drawings or caricatures; and
27 (ii) communicating anonymously or repeatedly with
28 another person, using any of the means identified in this
29 paragraph.
30 * * *
19990S0167B0164 - 2 -
1 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
L22L18RLE/19990S0167B0164 - 3 -