A.G. Gancarski
Senate Bill 476, filed Tuesday in the Florida Senate by Jacksonville Republican Aaron Bean, amends and expands existing statute regarding terrorism.
The bill creates a more expansive definition for “terrorism” and “terrorist activities.”
Additionally, the measure explicitly prohibits “using, attempting to use, or conspiring to use” training from a “designated foreign terrorist organization.”
Terroristic crimes, intended to “influence … affect … or retaliate against” a government via attacking citizens, would be defined as felonies of the first degree in the legislation, drawing a maximum prison term of 30 years.
A terroristic crime that causes death or serious bodily injury to one or more victims would be classified as a life felony.
A new section in statute addresses training from a designated foreign terrorist organization as well. Conspiring or planning to use such training, whether against people or “critical infrastructure facilities,” is defined as a second degree felony, and carries a maximum prison stretch of 15 years.
Another new section in statute applies first degree felony penalties to those offering “material support or resources” to terrorist organizations, a class of crimes which includes “expert advice” or the donation of goods or money to these causes and their intended outcomes.
That wide ranging category includes lodging, money, and false identification, as well as communications devices and lethal substances.
Excised from the “material support” category: religious materials and medicine.
The Bean bill also issues statutory prohibitions against “agroterrorism,” a new term in Florida Statute, which was on the wish list of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for this session.
Agroterrorism includes targeting crops, poultry, and livestock with contagious diseases, and would incur a second degree felony penalty. An affirmative defense against that charge: if the activity is consistent with a medically recognized procedure, or is done in the name of research.
If bodily injury or death is a consequence of agroterrorism for a human, the penalty would be a life felony.
