Senior citizens aren’t easy targets anymore.
They’re costly ones.
After much wrangling between the New York Assembly and the State Senate, both houses have put forth a new measure that would ensure that anyone convicted of committing a violent act against a senior citizen will receive a minimum seven year prison sentence.
The new legislation, nicknamed “Granny’s Law” is poised to go before Governor David Paterson in the next few weeks.
The bill was originally crafted by Bay Ridge State Senator Marty Golden following the brutal, headline grabbing mugging against Queens’ senior citizen Rose Morat.
Her attacker, who was later identified as Jack Rhodes not only attacked the plucky 101-year-old victim in an attempt to rob her of her bag, but then attacked an 85-year-old woman in the same area thirty minutes later, police allege. If convicted of the robbery and assault charges filed by the two women, he could receive up to 90 years in prison, officials said.
Representing neighborhoods with some of the highest concentrations of senior citizens in New York State, Golden drafted his Granny’s law legislation, which required extra jail time to anyone who commits a crime against someone 70-years-old or older.
While the Senate unanimously approved the bill last March, the bill didn’t make a ripple in the Assembly and was shot down.
In turn, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver
