Senate Bill 2041

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 97-1-5, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE THE PUNISHMENT FOR ACCESSORY AFTER THE FACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 97-1-5, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

97-1-5. (1) Every person who shall be convicted of having concealed, received, or relieved any felon, or having aided or assisted any felon, knowing that such person had committed a felony not enumerated in subsection (2) of this section, with intent to enable such felon to escape or to avoid arrest, trial, conviction or punishment, after the commission of such felony, on conviction thereof shall be imprisoned in the custody of the Department of Corrections not exceeding five (5) years, or in the county jail not exceeding one (1) year, or by fine not exceeding One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or by both.

(2) Every person who shall be convicted of having concealed, received, or relieved any felon, or having aided or assisted any felon, knowing that the felon had committed capital murder, murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, armed robbery or kidnapping, with intent to enable the felon to escape or to avoid arrest, trial, conviction or punishment after the commission of one or more of the enumerated felonies, on conviction thereof shall be imprisoned in the custody of the Department of Corrections not less than five (5) years nor more than twenty (20) years, or by fine not exceeding Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00), or by both.

(3) * * * In prosecution for such offenses it shall not be necessary to aver in the indictment or to prove in the trial that the principal has been convicted or tried.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2012.