I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5688 

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a criminal penalty for 

torture committed by law enforcement officers and others acting under 

color of law. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 1, 2010 

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois (for himself, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, and Mr. RUSH) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 

Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a criminal 

penalty for torture committed by law enforcement officers and others acting under color of law. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Law Enforcement Tor5 ture Prevention Act of 2010’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. TORTURE COMMITTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OF2 FICERS AND OTHER ACTING UNDER COLOR 

3 OF LAW. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 13 of title 18, United 

5 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol6 lowing: 

7 ‘‘§ 250. Torture committed by law enforcement offi8 cers and others acting under color of law 

9 ‘‘(a) Whoever, acting under color of local, State, or 

10 Federal law, commits or attempts or conspires to commit 

11 torture shall be imprisoned for not more than 10 years, 

12 but if death results to any person from the offense, the 

13 offender shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for 

14 life. 

15 ‘‘(b) A person may be prosecuted, tried, or punished 

16 for an offense under this section at any time without limi17 tation. 

18 ‘‘(c) In this section— 

19 ‘‘(1) the term ‘torture’ means intentionally in20 flicting severe pain or suffering, whether physical or 

21 mental, on a person for such purposes as obtaining 

22 from that person or another information or a confes23 sion, punishing that person, or intimidating or coerc24 ing that person or another, or for any reason based 

25 on discrimination of any kind, but does not include 


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1 pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or 

2 incidental to, lawful sanctions; and 

3 ‘‘(2) the term ‘inflicting severe pain or suf4 fering’ means— 

5 ‘‘(A) causing or threatening to inflict se6 vere pain or suffering; 

7 ‘‘(B) the administration or application, or 

8 threatened administration or application, of 

9 mind-altering substances or other procedures 

10 calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or 

11 the personality; 

12 ‘‘(C) the threat of imminent death; or 

13 ‘‘(D) the threat that another person will 

14 imminently be subjected to death, severe phys15 ical pain or suffering, or the administration or 

16 application of mind-altering substances or other 

17 procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the 

18 senses or personality.’’. 

19 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

20 at the beginning of chapter 13 of title 18, United States 

21 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘250. Torture committed by law enforcement officers and others acting under 

color of law.’’. 

Æ 


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