Crimes: criminal threats., the official text

An act to amend Section 422 of the Penal Code, relating to crimes.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

Existing law makes it a crime to willfully threaten to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, as specified. Under existing law, this crime is punishable as a misdemeanor or by imprisonment in state prison as a felony. Existing law, for the purposes of sentencing for a felony violation of these provisions, authorizes the court to consider, as a factor in aggravation, that the defendant willfully threatened to commit a crime that would result in the death or great bodily injury of a state constitutional officer, a Member of the Legislature, or a judge or court commissioner, as specified.
This bill would additionally authorize the court to consider, as a factor in aggravation, that the defendant willfully threatened to commit a crime that would result in the death or great bodily injury of an elections official of a city, county, city and county, or public district, or an elected local agency official, as specified.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.
Section 422 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
422.
(a) Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for their own safety or for their immediate family’s safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.
(b) In sentencing a person convicted of a felony violation of subdivision (a), the court may consider, as a factor in aggravation, that the defendant willfully threatened to commit a crime that would result in the death or great bodily injury of a person the defendant knew was a state constitutional officer, a Member of the Legislature, or a judge or court commissioner, as defined in subdivisions (a), (b), (c), (n), and (q) of Section 7920.500 of the Government Code, an elections official of a city, county, city and county, or public district, or an elected local agency official.
(c) (1) For purposes of this section, “immediate family” means any spouse, whether by marriage or not, parent, child, any person related by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the prior six months, regularly resided in the household.
(2) For purposes of this section, “electronic communication device” includes, but is not limited to, telephones, cellular telephones, computers, video recorders, fax machines, or pagers. “Electronic communication” has the same meaning as the term is defined in Subsection 12 of Section 2510 of Title 18 of the United States Code.