Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 13 and Title 40.

This bill limits the punishment a jury may consider for a defendant convicted of first degree murder committed against certain persons engaging in the performance of official duties to death or life imprisonment without possibility of parole, as discussed below. Under present law, a person convicted of first degree murder is punished by death, imprisonment for life without possibility of parole, or imprisonment for life. This bill requires that a defendant be punished by death or imprisonment without possibility of parole when the jury unanimously determines the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder was committed: (1) Against a law enforcement officer, correctional officer, department of correction employee, probation and parole officer, emergency medical or rescue worker, emergency medical technician, paramedic, or firefighter who was engaged in the performance of official duties; and (2) The defendant knew or reasonably should have known that the victim was such a person described in item (1) engaging in official duties. This bill makes corresponding changes in various other provisions of law governing the penalty process and sentencing for first degree murder. ON MARCH 25, 2021, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENTS #2 AND #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 511, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #2 rewrites this bill to change present law concerning the Class A felony offense of commission of an act of terrorism. This amendment makes the killing of another in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of the commission of an act of terrorism an offense for which a person may be convicted of first degree murder without the state being required to prove that the person had a culpable mental state other than the intent to commit an act of terrorism. This amendment removes imprisonment for life as a sentencing option for such offense, so that a person convicted of such offense must be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without possibility of parole. This amendment expands the type of acts that constitute an act of terrorism to include an act that is intended, directly or indirectly, to serve as a premeditated, politically motivated act of violence, or violence in pursuit of religious, ideological, or social objectives, perpetrated against first responders, including law enforcement officers, correctional officers, department of correction employees, probation or parole officers, paramedics, firefighters, or other emergency medical rescue workers acting in their official capacity, which results in loss of life. This bill requires that any such act of terrorism is prosecuted and sentenced as first degree murder. AMENDMENT #1 changes the jury instruction for the sentence of imprisonment for life in first degree murder cases to inform the jury that a defendant who receives a sentence of imprisonment for life is not eligible for parole consideration until the defendant has served at least 51 (rather than 25) full calendar years of the sentence. ON APRIL 29, 2021, THE SENATE SUBSTITUTED HOUSE BILL 841 FOR SENATE BILL 841, ADOPTED AMENDMENT #2, AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 841, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #2 incorporates the changes made by House Amendments #1 and 2, and changes present law concerning jury instructions and sentencing so that the least severe sentence that may imposed on a person who is convicted of first degree murder for the killing of another in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an act of terrorism, when committed by an adult, will be imprisonment for life without possibility of parole.