Sara’s Law and the Preventing Unfair Sentencing Act of 2023

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4724 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4724

 To authorize the court to depart from a statutory minimum in the case 
  of a juvenile offender, youthful victim offender, and certain other 
                    minors, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 18, 2023

 Mr. Westerman (for himself, Mr. Cardenas, Mr. Trone, and Ms. Kamlager-
    Dove) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize the court to depart from a statutory minimum in the case 
  of a juvenile offender, youthful victim offender, and certain other 
                    minors, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Sara's Law and the Preventing Unfair 
Sentencing Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. SENTENCING YOUTHFUL VICTIM OFFENDERS WHO HAVE BEEN TRAFFICKED, 
              ABUSED, OR ASSAULTED.

    (a) Sentencing Youthful Victim Offenders.--
            (1) In general.--Section 3553 of title 18, United States 
        Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(h) Sentencing Youthful Victim Offenders.--
            ``(1) Statutory minimums.--In the case of a youthful victim 
        offender, the court shall have the authority to impose a 
        sentence that is below a level established by statute as a 
        minimum sentence so as to consider the effect of trauma on the 
        offender's conduct.
            ``(2) Suspension of sentence.--In the case of a youthful 
        victim offender, the court shall have the authority to suspend 
        any portion of an imposed sentence.
            ``(3) Youthful victim offender defined.--In this 
        subsection, the term `youthful victim offender' means an 
        individual who--
                    ``(A) has not attained the age of 18; and
                    ``(B) has been convicted of a violent offense 
                against a person who the court finds, by clear and 
                convincing evidence, engaged in conduct against such 
                individual, not earlier than 1 year before such violent 
                offense, that is an offense under section 1591 or an 
                offense under chapter 71, 109A, 110, or 117.''.
            (2) Application.--The amendments made by this section shall 
        apply only to a conviction entered on or after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act.
    (b) Directive to Sentencing Commission.--Pursuant to its authority 
under section 994(p) of title 28, United States Code, and in accordance 
with this section, the United States Sentencing Commission shall review 
and amend, if appropriate, its guidelines and its policy statements 
with respect to youthful victim offenders (as such term is defined in 
section 3553 of title 18, United States Code) to ensure that the 
guidelines and policy statements are consistent with the amendments 
made by subsection (a).
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