[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5688 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5688

 To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a criminal penalty 
  for torture committed by law enforcement officers and others acting 
                          under color of law.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 1, 2010

 Mr. Davis of Illinois (for himself, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, and Mr. 
    Rush) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a criminal penalty 
  for torture committed by law enforcement officers and others acting 
                          under color of law.

    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 ``Law Enforcement Torture Prevention 
Act of 2010''.

SEC. 2. TORTURE COMMITTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS AND OTHER ACTING 
              UNDER COLOR OF LAW.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 13 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 250. Torture committed by law enforcement officers and others 
              acting under color of law
    ``(a) Whoever, acting under color of local, State, or Federal law, 
commits or attempts or conspires to commit torture shall be imprisoned 
for not more than 10 years, but if death results to any person from the 
offense, the offender shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for 
life.
    ``(b) A person may be prosecuted, tried, or punished for an offense 
under this section at any time without limitation.
    ``(c) In this section--
            ``(1) the term `torture' means intentionally inflicting 
        severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, on a 
        person for such purposes as obtaining from that person or 
        another information or a confession, punishing that person, or 
        intimidating or coercing that person or another, or for any 
        reason based on discrimination of any kind, but does not 
        include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or 
        incidental to, lawful sanctions; and
            ``(2) the term `inflicting severe pain or suffering' 
        means--
                    ``(A) causing or threatening to inflict severe pain 
                or suffering;
                    ``(B) the administration or application, or 
                threatened administration or application, of mind-
                altering substances or other procedures calculated to 
                disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
                    ``(C) the threat of imminent death; or
                    ``(D) the threat that another person will 
                imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain 
                or suffering, or the administration or application of 
                mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated 
                to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
chapter 13 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following:

``250. Torture committed by law enforcement officers and others acting 
                            under color of law.''.
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