PRINTER'S NO. 227
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
256
Session of
2019
INTRODUCED BY METZGAR, READSHAW, SNYDER, KAUFFMAN, JAMES,
BARRAR, McNEILL, IRVIN, OBERLANDER, SAYLOR, DeLUCA, TOPPER,
ZIMMERMAN, REESE, STRUZZI, GOODMAN, GILLEN AND BENNINGHOFF,
JANUARY 29, 2019
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, JANUARY 29, 2019
AN ACT
Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania
Consolidated Statutes, in assault, further providing for the
offense of assault by prisoner and for the offense of assault
by life prisoner.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Sections 2703(a) and 2704 of Title 18 of the
Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes are amended to read:
§ 2703. Assault by prisoner.
(a) Offense defined.--[A]
(1) Except as provided under section 2704 (relating to
assault by life prisoner), a person who is confined in or
committed to any local or county detention facility, jail or
prison or any State penal or correctional institution or
other State penal or correctional facility located in this
Commonwealth is guilty of a felony of the second degree if
he, while so confined or committed or while undergoing
transportation to or from such an institution or facility in
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or to which he was confined or committed intentionally or
knowingly, commits an assault upon any of the following:
(i) Except as provided under subparagraph (ii),
another with a deadly weapon or instrument, or by any
means or force likely to produce serious bodily injury.
(ii) A detention facility or correctional facility
employee with a deadly weapon or instrument, or by any
means or force likely to produce bodily injury.
(2) A person is guilty of this offense if he
intentionally or knowingly causes another to come into
contact with blood, seminal fluid, saliva, urine or feces by
throwing, tossing, spitting or expelling such fluid or
material when, at the time of the offense, the person knew,
had reason to know, should have known or believed such fluid
or material to have been obtained from an individual,
including the person charged under this section, infected by
a communicable disease, including, but not limited to, human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis B.
* * *
§ 2704. Assault by life prisoner.
(a) Offense defined.--Every person who has been sentenced to
death or life imprisonment in any penal institution located in
this Commonwealth, and whose sentence has not been commuted, who
commits [an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon or
instrument upon another, or by any means of force likely to
produce serious bodily injury] any of the following, is guilty
of a crime, the penalty for which shall be the same as the
penalty for murder of the second degree[.]:
(1) An aggravated assault with a deadly weapon or
instrument upon another, or by any means of force likely to
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produce serious bodily injury.
(2) An assault with a deadly weapon or instrument upon
another, or by any means of force likely to produce bodily
injury.
(b) Contact.-- A person is guilty of this offense if he
intentionally or knowingly causes another to come into contact
with blood, seminal fluid, saliva, urine or feces by throwing,
tossing, spitting or expelling such fluid or material when, at
the time of the offense, the person knew, had reason to know,
should have known or believed such fluid or material to have
been obtained from an individual, including the person charged
under this section, infected by a communicable disease,
including, but not limited to, human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) or hepatitis B.
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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