2022 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 53a - Penal Code
Chapter 952 - Penal Code: Offenses
Section 53a-147. - Bribery: Class C felony.
(a) A person is guilty of bribery if he promises, offers, confers or agrees to confer upon a public servant or a person selected to be a public servant, any benefit as consideration for the recipient's decision, opinion, recommendation or vote as a public servant or a person selected to be a public servant.
(b) Bribery is a class C felony.
(1969, P.A. 828, S. 149; P.A. 80-479, S. 2; P.A. 03-259, S. 46.)
History: P.A. 80-479 included bribery of persons selected to be public servants in provisions and bribery consisting of promises of benefits for recipient's decision, opinion, recommendation of vote, deleting reference to “other exercise of discretion”; P.A. 03-259 amended Subsec. (b) to change bribery from a class D felony to a class C felony.
Offense of offering gratuity requires element of proof, specific intent, which is not needed to prove greater offense of bribery; it is no defense for crime of bribery that police officer had no authority to take action desired by bribe given; covers crime of bribery in broad terms and is not limited to administration of justice and attempts to influence legislation. 172 C. 458. Sec. 29-9 is not lesser included offense to this charge, and acceptance of guilty plea to said section was nullity. Id., 608.
Cited. 1 CA 524; 5 CA 125; 9 CA 15; 14 CA 322; 21 CA 386. The term “offer” is undefined, but section language is similar to federal bribery statute, 18 USC 201(b), and, under federal law, a bribery conviction must be based on more than evidence of mere preparation, but must progress to the point that defendant made an offer that consisted of an expression of a desire and an ability to pay the public official for performing a proscribed act. 156 CA 650.
