State Senator Patty Ritchie has introduced “Mark’s Law,” a bill to make the killing of emergency first responders first degree murder.

The Heuvelton Republican is asking for members of the public to visit an online petition site to raise support for her bill.

Ritchie says the act would punish an offender “by the stiffest penalty allowed by law, life without parole.”

The bill, S 4717, was introduced in memory of Mark Davis, the emergency medical technician who was shot to death while responding to a call for help in Cape Vincent on January 30, 2009.

The bill amends the penal law to include emergency responders, emergency medical technicians, firefighters, volunteer firefighters, ambulance drivers, paramedics, physicians or nurses involved in a first response team as victims of first degree murder.

“We depend on our emergency first responders to react without hesitation and arrive on the scene to save lives and protect us from harm,” Senator Ritchie said. “They are the heroes of our hometowns who come when we need them to rescue us when we have no where else to turn.”

“That’s why we owe it to them to give them every protection the law will allow,” Ritchie said.

The law would add the emergency crews to the list that now includes police officers, peace officers, uniformed court officers, parole officers, probation officers, employees of the division of youth, and corrections officers.

“But to help see it become law, I need your help,” Ritchie says in a public appeal. “We will need to show broad community support to win passage of this bill through both houses of the legislature. That's why I need you to go to www.ritchie.nysenate.gov to sign my on-line petition.

In the Davis case, the defendant was convicted of manslaughter because of his psychiatric issues and mental status at the time of the shooting.

This bill would not change how the law applies when defendants can legitimately raise the extreme emotional disturbance defense.