Penal Law § 490.50 · Article 490. Terrorism
Criminal use of a chemical weapon or biological weapon in the second degree
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 490.50 Criminal use of a chemical weapon or biological weapon in the second degree.
A person is guilty of criminal use of a chemical weapon or biological weapon in the second degree when he or she uses, deploys, releases, or causes to be used, deployed, or released, any chemical weapon or biological weapon, with intent to:
1. cause serious physical injury to, or the death of, another person; and
2. (a) intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(b) influence the policy of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion; or
(c) to affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination, or kidnapping.
Criminal use of a chemical weapon or biological weapon in the second degree is a class A-II felony.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN490.50
- Text hash
- sha256 438495b86eacbd6329ba4858afee9f979d3312206be400f7ea361e01a0eb0eab
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.