New York Gaming Bill: What Is A Class E Felony?

Game Politics is reporting that the New York video game regulation bill is on hold, but will still have selling games listed as a class E felony. As I pointed out before, depending on the end result of some active New York litigation, that could mean selling games could trigger the three strikes law.

Today, however, I thought it would be worthwhile to share some other class E felonies under New York law, and some misdemeanors, for comparison sake.

New York Class E Felonies (All of which can be found here in the Penal Code)(This list is by no means exhaustive):

§ 120.01 Reckless assault of a child by a child day care provider.
§ 120.03 Vehicular assault in the second degree.
§ 120.30 Promoting a suicide attempt.
§ 125.10 Criminally negligent homicide.
§ 125.40 Abortion in the second degree.
§ 130.25 Rape in the third degree. ("Statutory Rape")
§ 130.40 Criminal sexual act in the third degree.
§ 135.10 Unlawful imprisonment in the first degree.
§ 150.05 Arson in the fourth degree.
§ 230.05 Patronizing a prostitute in the second degree. (A person over 18 patronizes a prostitute who is under 14.)
§ 176.15 Insurance fraud in the fourth degree.

"S.203 would create a new Class E felony when a person is convicted of a fourth violation of driving while ability impaired (DWAI). The penalty would be a fine of between $1,000 and $5,000 and/or imprisonment for a minimum of 1-3 years, and a mandatory drivers license revocation for one year." (Source)


Not a Class E Felony (lower penalty):

§ 65-a. Procuring alcoholic beverages for persons under the age of
twenty-one years.
§ 65-b. Offense for one under age of twenty-one years to purchase or
attempt to purchase an alcoholic beverage through fraudulent means.
§ 152. Sale of illicit alcoholic beverages.
§ 220.70 Criminal possession of methamphetamine manufacturing material
in the second degree.
§ 230.00 Prostitution.

Unfortunately, the New York legislative web site is riddled with an "internal server error," which has slowed this search to a crawl. I imagine, though, that these few examples paint a wonderful picture:

Selling a video game is the same as getting a fourth DWAI, committing a criminally negligent homicide, committing statutory rape, or committing fourth degree arson. Selling a video game is evidently more dangerous than selling alcohol or possessing the material to make meth, and I expect tobacco follows in a similar way.