Any person who knowingly causes, procures, aids, counsels or creates by means of fire
or explosion a substantial risk of serious physical harm to any person or damage to
any building the property of that person or another, whether or not used for residential
purposes, which is occupied or in use for any purpose or which has been occupied or
in use for any purpose during the six (6) months preceding the offense or to any other
residential structure, shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to imprisonment for not
less than five (5) years and may be imprisoned for life, or shall be fined not less
than three thousand dollars ($3,000) nor more than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000),
or both; provided, further, that whenever a death occurs to a person as a direct result
of the fire or explosion or to a person who is directly involved in fighting the fire
or explosion, imprisonment shall be for not less than twenty (20) years. In all such
cases, the justice may only impose a sentence less than the minimum if he or she finds
that substantial and compelling circumstances exist which justify imposition of the
alternative sentence. That finding may be based upon the character and background
of the defendant, the cooperation of the defendant with law enforcement authorities,
the nature and circumstances of the offense, and/or the nature and quality of the
evidence presented at trial. If a sentence which is less than imprisonment for the
minimum term is imposed, the trial justice shall set forth on the record the circumstances
which he or she found as justification for imposition of the lesser sentence.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
26
cases, 1980–2019 · leading case:
State v. Caprio, 477 A.2d 67 (R.I. 1984).
State v. Caprio, 477 A.2d 67 (R.I. 1984).
· cites it 5× “1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 11-4-2 as follows: “Arson — First degree — Any person who knowingly causes, procures, aids, counsels or creates by means of fire or explosion, a substantial risk of serious physical harm to any person or damage to any building the property of himself or…”
State v. Marini, 638 A.2d 507 (R.I. 1994).
· cites it 2× “Section 11-4-2 provides that persons convicted of first-degree arson “shall * * * be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than five (5) years and may be imprisoned for life * * *; provided, further, that whenever a death occurs to a person * * * imprisonment shall be for not…”
Gordon v. Vose, 879 F. Supp. 179 (D.R.I. 1995).
· cites it 5× “” The statute involved, R.I.Gen.Laws § 11-4-2, states in pertinent part: 11-4-2.”
State v. Doyon, 416 A.2d 130 (R.I. 1980).
· cites it 2× “178, § 1, and now provides that a murder committed in violation of § 11-4-2 will be considered first-degree murder.”
State v. Gary Gaudreau, 139 A.3d 433 (R.I. 2016).
· cites it 2× “The defendant, Gary Gaudreau, appeals from a judgment of conviction entered after a jury found him guilty of first-degree arson in violation of G.L.1956 § 11-4-2. The trial justice sentenced the defendant to twenty-five years — with nine years to serve and sixteen years…”
State v. Gordon, 508 A.2d 1339 (R.I. 1986).
“Count 2 of the indictment charged that defendant “did knowingly cause, procure, aid, counsel, and create by means of fire,” damage to the building owned, occupied, and used by the furniture company, in violation of § 11-4-2. The court granted a judgment of aquittal only in…”
State v. Dame, 560 A.2d 330 (R.I. 1989).
“1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 11-4-2. In 1982 defendant was first convicted of this charge.”
State v. Mlyniec, 15 A.3d 983 (R.I. 2011).
“Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing, or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson or any violation of §§ 11-4-2, 11-4-3, or 11-4-4, rape, any degree of sexual…”
State v. Bruyere, 751 A.2d 1285 (R.I. 2000).
· cites it 2× “Bruyere (defendant), appeals from a judgment of conviction entered in Superior Court in which a jury found him guilty of first-degree arson of the Warwick Community Police Station (police station) in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-4-2. The trial justice denied defendant’s motion…”
State v. Dame, 488 A.2d 418 (R.I. 1985).
“1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 11-4-2. We reverse and order a new trial.”
Cody-Allen Zab v. Katherine Zab, 203 A.3d 1175 (R.I. 2019).
· cites it 2× “1956 § 11-23-1 ; one count of first-degree arson, in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-4-2 ; and one count of fourth-degree arson, in violation of § 11-4-5.”
United States v. Mitchell, 218 F. Supp. 3d 360 (M.D. Penn. 2016).
· cites it 2× “325; 11 R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-4-2 to -5; S.C. Code Ann.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.