Senate Bill No. 31
(By Senator Weeks)
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[Introduced January 11, 2006; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §61-2-31, relating to
creating a new crime of "involuntary manslaughter by a
caregiver"; and establishing a penalty and statute of
limitations for such crime.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §61-2-31, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 2. CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-31. Involuntary manslaughter when person acting as
caregiver; penalties.
(a) The following words when used in this section have the
meaning ascribed, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(1) "Caregiver" means an adult who has or shares actual physical possession or care of an incapacitated adult or elder
person on a full-time or temporary basis, regardless of whether such
person has been designated as a guardian of such adult by any
contract, agreement or legal proceeding. Caregiver includes health
care providers, family members and any person who otherwise
voluntarily accepts a supervisory role towards an incapacitated
adult or elder person;
(2) "Incapacitated adult" means any person who by reason of
physical, mental or other infirmity is unable to physically carry
on the daily activities of life necessary to sustaining life and
reasonable health;
(3) "Elder" means a person age sixty-five years or older;
(b) Any caregiver convicted under section five of this article
who was acting as caregiver of the victim at the time of the
commission of the crime and the crime would not have occurred but
for the defendant's lack of adequate care for the victim, shall be
confined in a correctional facility not less than ninety days nor
more than one year, or fined not more than one thousand dollars, or
both. Notwithstanding other provisions of this code, the statute
of limitations for a violation of this section shall be two years
provided that the offense occurs after the first day of July, two
thousand six.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish the crime of
involuntary manslaughter by a caregiver. Under the bill, a
caregiver convicted of voluntary manslaughter may be sentenced to
not less than ninety days. The bill also establishes a two-year
statute of limitation for offenses occurring after July 1, 2006.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.