Sec. 53a-151. Tampering with a witness: Class C felony. - Connecticut Statutes

      Sec. 53a-151. Tampering with a witness: Class C felony. (a) A person is guilty of tampering with a witness if, believing that an official proceeding is pending or about to be instituted, he induces or attempts to induce a witness to testify falsely, withhold testimony, elude legal process summoning him to testify or absent himself from any official proceeding.

      (b) Tampering with a witness is a class C felony.

      (1969, P.A. 828, S. 153; P.A. 03-259, S. 52.)

      History: P.A. 03-259 amended Subsec. (b) to change tampering with a witness from a class D felony to a class C felony.

      Cited. 193 C. 526. Cited. 196 C. 242. Cited. 197 C. 369. Cited. 200 C. 664. Cited. 204 C. 330. Cited. 228 C. 147; Id., 918. Cited. 230 C. 686; Id., 698.

      Cited. 1 CA 647. Cited. 12 CA 74. Cited. 26 CA 758. Cited. 30 CA 95; judgment reversed, see 228 C. 147. Cited. 33 CA 143. Cited. 46 CA 741. Defendant's claim that statute is so vague and indefinite that it violates the due process clause of article first, Sec. 8 of the state constitution and the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution because it did not clearly define his conduct-telephoning victim despite police warnings not to contact her and instructing her to tell police that "nothing ever happened"-is without merit; language of statute plainly warns potential perpetrators that statute applies to any conduct that is intended to prompt witness to testify falsely or to refrain from testifying in an official proceeding that the perpetrator believes to be pending or imminent; legislature's unqualified use of word "induce" clearly informs persons of ordinary intelligence that any conduct, physical or verbal, can potentially give rise to criminal liability. 74 CA 473. Supreme Court made clear that liability under section hinges on mental state of the perpetrator in engaging in the conduct at issue, not on whether he must overcome by coercive means the will of a witness reluctant to do so. 83 CA 672. As interpreted in our case law, section provides fair warning of the conduct that it prohibits. Id.

      Cited. 39 CS 428. Cited. 41 CS 525. Cited. 43 CS 46.

      Subsec. (a):

      Cited. 41 CA 584. The "pending or about to be instituted" element may be satisfied when the facts support the inference that defendant reasonably could have contemplated that an official proceeding was likely to arise. It is enough under this statute to satisfy the required belief that an official proceeding is "about to be instituted" and is therefore imminent if a defendant, knowing he has been implicated in a crime, threatens a likely witness to that crime to withhold evidence from the police. It is sufficient to qualify as tampering that the defendant attempted to discourage the witness from speaking to the police, as opposed to testifying at trial, when there was evidence that the defendant believed an official proceeding was imminent. 110 CA 608.