Strong Sentences for Safer D.C. Streets Act
The Strong Sentences for Safer D.C. Streets Act would substantially raise mandatory minimum penalties for a set of serious offenses in the District of Columbia, replacing prior sentencing ranges with fixed minimums and, in many cases, extending maximum potential terms or removing parole/indeterminate-sentence options. Notably, first-degree murder would become life imprisonment without the possibility of release, and various violent crimes (murder, rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping, carjacking, burglary) would carry higher floor terms. The bill also repeals or restructures some existing DC sentencing mechanisms (such as certain boards and procedures) and makes these changes applicable only to offenses charged after enactment, not retroactively. In short, the bill shifts sentencing toward longer, mandatory terms and reduces individualized judicial discretion in the District of Columbia for the specified offenses.
Key Points
- 1First Degree Murder: Converts to life imprisonment without release; eliminates the current sentencing range and associated parole/indeterminate-sentence considerations.
- 2Second Degree Murder: Increases minimums to not less than 10 years (with potential for up to life).
- 3Rape and First Degree Sexual Abuse: Substantially higher minimums (rape: not less than 25 years or, with prior violence conviction, not less than 30 years; first-degree sexual abuse: not less than 25 years to life).
- 4Removal of certain sentence-creation/eligibility mechanisms: Repeals or reduces the role of the Board of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole and related sentencing procedures, and tightens how sentences above a baseline term may be imposed.
- 5Other offenses with higher minimums: Kidnapping (not less than 10 years to not more than 30 years); Carjacking (unarmed not less than 10 years; armed not less than 20 years); First Degree Burglary (not less than 10 years, up from 5 years).
- 6Effective date: Applies to individuals charged on or after enactment; not retroactive to those charged before the law changes.