New York State currently
divides robbery into three major categories: First Degree, Second
Degree, and Third Degree.
Robbery in the First Degree
is a class B violent felony in New York. This is the most serious
form of robbery and it carries a 25 year maximum prison term upon
conviction and a five year mandatory minimum for someone with no
criminal record. Robbery in the First Degree includes what most people
imagine when they think of robberies: a gunpoint robbery of a store
clerk or bank teller.
Robbery in the Second Degree
is a class C violent felony. This is the second most serious form
of robbery and it carries a 15 year maximum prison term upon conviction.
Robbery in the Second Degree might be called "group robbery"
because its most frequent form comes when multiple people work together
to commit a robbery.
Robbery in the Third Degree
is a class D non-violent felony. This is the least serious form of
robbery in New York, although it still carries a maximum of 2 1/3 to 7 years in
prison upon conviction.
Loosely and generally,
robbery in New York is the use of force to illegally obtain someone
else's property. Depending on how much force is used (or
threatened) and what is used to do the forcing, the robbery is more or
less serious.
Most people imagine a masked
gunman demanding money from a store clerk or bank teller when they
imagine a "robbery". While this "classic" idea
of robbery is certainly an example of something that might well be
classified as a robbery in New York State, a much wider set of
situations is also included in the New York State laws on robbery,
including many situations that people might dismiss as "not that
serious".
For example, many people
seem to be under the impression that the law recognizes some kind of
"just kids being stupid" exception to the laws of robbery.
Young people (especially junior high and high school students) often
engage in unwise, childish, sometimes bullying behavior that can and
often does end up with someone being arrested for "robbery".
Schoolyard bullies often
commit acts that the laws of New York might well describe as violent
felonies for which they could be treated as adults by the criminal
justice system. The school bully who pushes another student to the
ground and then takes his milk money (or notebook, or hat, etc.) has
quite likely committed at least Robbery in the Third Degree. If
one of the bully's friends kept a lookout while he did it, they both may
be guilty in New York of Robbery in the Second Degree and both may face
15 years in prison as adults (even if they are only 16 years old).
Parents in such situations
are often amazed and horrified to discover that such "routine"
school behavior can result in someone facing 15 years in prison.
Parents may feel that since such incidents likely occur on a regular
basis in schools around the world, their child is being unfairly singled
out for prosecution.
But the fact remains that
there is no "just kids being stupid" exception or defense to
the robbery statutes in New York. It may well seem unfair
that only a few students may end up being prosecuted, but that is what
happens.
The District
Attorneys Offices in New York City take robbery cases very seriously.
Anyone charged with a robbery needs to take it very seriously as well.
Robbery charges are among
the big leagues of criminal charges.
Especially in
allegations of "group" robbery, there are frequently serious
issues as to whether a person is truly guilty of the robbery.
The police tend to err on the side of making arrests when there
is a debate about whether a person was just "watching" or was in
fact being a lookout.
There are also
frequently serious identification issues in robbery cases.
Despite what people like to believe, human beings are horrible
at making accurate identifications, and people identified on the
street after a robbery often find themselves in the terrible
situation of being wrongly accused of robbery. The fact
that a person is not found with any of the stolen property and
the fact that the a person does not fully match the initial
description of the robber do not stop the police from making
arrests when there is an on the street identification. A
person so mistakenly identified needs a criminal lawyer
immediately to begin the process of mounting an appropriate
defense.
If someone you care
about has been charged with
robbery of any degree in New York City,
you
need a lawyer. It's that simple. It's that
serious.
