Hb 94: Criminalizing Porch Piracy

• Citation: Vol. 38 No. 1
• Publication year: 2022

HB 94: Criminalizing Porch Piracy

Charlie Ferrelle
cferrelle1@student.gsu.edu

Jake Summerlin
jsummerlin3@student.gsu.edu

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crimes and offenses

Offenses Involving Theft: Amend Article 1 of Chapter 8 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating to Theft, so as to Provide for the Crime of Theft by Possession of Stolen Mail; Provide for the Crime of Porch Piracy; Provide for Definitions; Provide for Penalties; Provide for Related Matters; Repeal Conflicting Laws; and for Other Purposes.

Code Sections: O.C.G.A. §§ 16-8-24 (new); -25 (new)

Bill Number: HB 94

Act Number: 269

Georgia Laws: 2021 Ga. Laws 652

Summary: The Act criminalizes the possession of stolen mail and the theft of mail or packages from the porch or entrance of a residential building. A violator may be subject to felony prosecution and imprisonment of one to five years.

Effective Date: July 1, 2021

History

Millions of people across the United States have received notifications from Amazon indicating that their package has been delivered to their front doorstep only to find the package gone when they get home.¹ Despite its whimsical name, "porch piracy" can be an annoying and frustrating experience.² More than one-third of Americans reported having a package stolen from their porch or mailbox in 2019.³ That number predictably increased in 2020 during

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the COVTD-19 pandemic with the growth of online shopping; one study found that 25 million households reported at least one instance of mail theft within a three-month period in 2020.⁴ In particular, reports of life-saving medication being stolen created even more cause for concern.⁵

To address this increasingly pervasive problem, Representative Bonnie Rich (R-97th) introduced House Bill (HB) 94 during the 2021 legislative session to create the new felony of porch piracy.⁶ She introduced the bill in response to a recommendation from the U.S. Postal Inspector, who described the issue as "out of control."⁷ The U.S. Postal Service found that mail theft takes place on a large scale not by petty thieves but by organized criminal rings that see stolen packages as a money-making opportunity.⁸ According to Representative Rich, the problem in stopping porch piracy was the inadequacy of Georgia's laws related to property theft.⁹

Under Georgia's existing property theft statute, stolen mail could only be prosecuted as a felony if the dollar amount of the package exceeded $1,500.¹⁰ As a result, the vast majority of porch piracy cases were misdemeanors, which, according to Representative Rich and other Georgia lawmakers, was an inadequate deterrent.¹¹ So, the proposed legislation sought to bring porch piracy in line with Georgia's burglary laws, which permit prosecution as a felony notwithstanding the dollar amount of the stolen property.¹² Because the porch is part of the "castle," the proposed legislation sought to

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incorporate the principle that crimes conducted within the vicinity of one's castle should carry a heavier penalty.¹³

Although the proposed bill is aimed at porch piracy nominally, HB 94 addresses two distinct separate types of conduct.¹⁴ Section 1 of the bill addresses the "possession of stolen mail" regardless of whether a suspect was caught stealing the mail from a porch or mailbox.¹⁵ Section 2 of the bill addresses "porch piracy," which is the act of taking mail from "the porch, steps, or immediate vicinity of any entrance or exit of a dwelling."¹⁶

The proposed bill was well-supported by Republicans in the Georgia Assembly and local district attorneys across the state.¹⁷ Republicans cited the continued growth of e-commerce as an example of the legislature's duty to "change the Georgia code in response to how society has changed."¹⁸ Georgia Democrats, however, were concerned with the punitive nature of the bill and the effect that it could have on the state's criminal justice system.¹⁹ Democrats were also skeptical of the bill because they thought it was needlessly duplicative of the state's existing theft statutes.²⁰ Against this backdrop, HB 94 entered the House hopper without guarantee that it would pass without amendment.

Bill Tracking of HB 94

Consideration and Passage by the House

Representative Bonnie Rich (R-97th) sponsored HB 94 in the House with Representative Terry England (R-116th), Representative Bert Reeves (R-34th), Representative Karen Mathiak (R-73rd),

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Representative Beth Camp (R-131st), and Representative Stan Gunter (R-8th) cosponsoring.²¹ The bill was filed with the House Clerk on January 14, 2021, and was read for the first time on January 26, 2021,²² The House read the bill for a second time on January 27, 2021, and then referred it to the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee the same day.²³

The Committee favorably reported the bill as introduced on February 26, 2021.²⁴ The House read the bill for the third time on March 3, 2021, when it was brought to the floor for debate.²⁵ Representative Rich, Representative Chuck Efstration (R-104th), Representative Ed Setzler (R-35th), Representative Reeves, and Representative James Burchett (R-176th) made floor speeches in support of the bill.²⁶ Representative Josh McLaurin (D-51st) and Representative William Boddie (D-62nd) made floor speeches in opposition to the bill.²⁷ The House passed the bill without amendment by a vote of 101 to 67 on March 3, 2021.²⁸

Consideration and Passage by the Senate

Senator John Kennedy (R-18th) sponsored the bill in the Senate.²⁹ The Senate read the bill for the first time on March 5, 2021, and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the same day.³⁰ The Committee made two amendments to the bill.³¹ The first amendment added language to Section 1 of the bill giving the trial judge the discretion to mitigate the crime's punishment to that of a misdemeanor.³² The second amendment increased the number of stolen packages needed to prosecute under Section 2 from one to three

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packages.³³ The Committee favorably reported the bill by substitute on March 25, 2021, and the Senate read the bill for a second time that day.³⁴ On March 29, 2021, the Senate read the bill for a third time, and it passed by a 38 to 14 vote on the Senate floor on the same day.³⁵

The House agreed to the Senate's substitute and voted 103 to 59 to pass the bill on March 31, 2021,³⁶ The House sent the bill to Governor Brian Kemp (R) on April 7, 2021, and he signed it into law as Act 269 on May 10, 2021.³⁷ The Act's effective date is July 1, 2021.³⁸

The Act

The Act amends Article 1 of Chapter 8 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to theft.³⁹ The Act provides for the crimes of theft by possession of stolen mail and porch piracy.⁴⁰

Section 1

Section 1 of the Act adds a new Code section, 16-8-24, to Article 1 of Chapter 8 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and provides for the crime of possession of stolen mail.⁴¹ Subsection (a) provides definitions for mail and possession of stolen mail.⁴² Mail means "a letter, post card, package, bag, or other sealed article that [i]s delivered . . . and has not yet been received by the person to whom it is addressed . . . or [h]as been left in a location to be collected for delivery."⁴³ To possess stolen mail means:

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[T]o knowingly receive, retain, possess, conceal, or dispose of stolen mail knowing that it has been stolen and to withhold such stolen mail from the true owner or person to whom the mail is addressed or to appropriate such stolen mail to the use of any person other than the true owner or the person to whom the mail is addressed.⁴⁴

Subsection (b) provides that a person shall be guilty of possession of stolen mail if they possess "a minimum of ten separate pieces of stolen mail" that are "addressed to three or more different mailboxes or addresses."⁴⁵ Subsection (c) makes the crime a felony with a penalty of imprisonment for one to five years but leaves the trial judge the discretion to punish the crime as a misdemeanor.⁴⁶

Finally, subsection (d) imposes higher penalties for those in possession of massive amounts of stolen mail by making "each set of ten separate pieces of stolen mail addressed to three or more different mailboxes or addresses [] a separate and distinct crime."⁴⁷ Subsection (e) adds that a person who possesses stolen mail may not use the fact that they were never apprehended as a defense to the crime of possession of stolen mail.⁴⁸

Section 2

Section 2 of the Act adds Code section 16-8-25 to Article 1 of Chapter 8 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and provides for the crime of porch piracy.⁴⁹ Subsection (a) clarifies that the term "dwelling" has the same definition as in Code section 16-7-1, the burglary statute.⁵⁰ That statute defines dwelling as "any building, structure, or portion thereof which is designed or intended for

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occupancy for residential use[.]"⁵¹ Subsection (b) provides that a person is guilty of porch piracy if "such person takes, removes, or otherwise appropriates three or more envelopes, bags, packages, or other related articles of another person . . . from the porch, steps, or immediate vicinity of any entrance or exit of a dwelling of three or more different mailboxes or addresses."⁵² In other words, a person must take three or more articles from three or more different "porches" to be guilty of porch piracy.⁵³ Finally, subsection (c) mirrors subsection (c) from Section 1 of Code section 16-8-24 and makes the crime a felony with a punishment of one to five years but gives the trial judge the discretion to punish the crime as a misdemeanor.⁵⁴

Analysis

The Role of the Prosecutor

Proponents of HB 94 pointed to the lack of prosecutorial resources to support the creation of a new felony for porch piracy.⁵⁵ For instance, local jurisdictions lacked the resources to "calculate the value of the contents of each package" for the purpose of bringing a misdemeanor or felony charge.⁵⁶ Instead, most instances of...