THE MEDIA COALITION INC.

E-MAIL: MEDIACOALITION@MEDIACOALITION.ORG

The members of Media Coalition believe that Senate Bill 5110's expansion of the "Son of Sam" law creates extremes burdens for producers of First Amendment protected material. The members of Media Coalition are trade associations representing most of the book and magazine publishers, booksellers, librarians, magazine distributors, movie, recording and video game manufacturers, and recording and video retailers in New York and the rest of the United States.

S.B. 5110 would require anyone who pays, contracts or agrees to pay $5,000 or more to anyone convicted of a felony or misdemeanor and incarcerated, on probation or in a post-release supervision program to report the contract to the Crime Victim’s Board (CVB). The CVB must then notify all known crime victims who then have the right to sue the criminal for damages incurred. In the meantime, the CVB can seek to enjoin or attach the funds.

Among our concerns with the proposed legislation are:

Although the bill may appear to comply with the First Amendment, it nevertheless substantially "chills" First Amendment speech by discouraging those convicted of any crime from publishing, filming or recording their thoughts about crime, the criminal justice system, and other social issues, whether or not related to the crime for which they were convicted.

 

It also "chills" First Amendment speech by discouraging publishers, motion picture producers, film makers and recording companies from dealing with those incarcerated, under post-release supervision or some who may be up to ten years removed from serving certain sentences because of the significant practical burdens imposed by the bill.

This bill potentially imposes an onerous burden on business people who may hire or contract with persons who may have been convicted of certain crimes. If a business person will likely become responsible for researching the criminal history of any potential hire for fear of risking the treble damages for "knowingly" paying someone previously convicted or under post-conviction.

It moves away from the original underlying purpose of preventing a criminal from financially benefiting from telling the story or notoriety of committing the crime. This bill removes any connection between the generated income and the conviction.

The bill may require reporting funds paied up to ten years after imprisonment. For example, if a movie option is granted during post-release supervision, the funds payable years later after the option has been exercised are covered by this bill