Tennessee gangs bill has improved chances of passing into law | timesfreepress.com

Tennessee gangs bill has improved chances of passing into law | timesfreepress.com:

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The law would place criminal gang offenses within the state’s existing Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, where convictions would be class B felonies with sentences ranging from at least 12 to 20 years.

“We can easily look at court records to determine which [gang] members have which requisite conditions,” he said. “We have the gang validation to show the defendants are members of that gang.”

“A RICO case is a very labor intensive and expensive case to investigate, and we would have to involve other state and federal agencies for assistance,” Royval said. “It would be easier and more cost effective to use the current federal statute for RICO. A good RICO case would probably include defendants from outside of Hamilton County and possibly into other states, so I would be inclined to start a federal RICO case instead of a state RICO case.”