Whoever, verbally or by a written or printed communication, maliciously threatens to accuse another of a crime or offense or by a verbal or written communication maliciously threatens any injury to the person, reputation, property, or financial condition of another, or threatens to engage in other criminal conduct with intent to extort money or any unlawful pecuniary advantage, or with intent to compel any person to do any act against his or her will, or to prohibit any person from carrying out a duty imposed by law, shall be punished by imprisonment in the adult correctional institutions for not more than fifteen (15) years or by a fine of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), or both.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-42-2
Extortion and blackmail
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case United States v. Malloy (2010)
Most recently applied in Grassick v. Holder D.R.I (March 2012)
G.L. 1896, ch. 277, § 17; G.L. 1909, ch. 343, § 17; G.L. 1923, ch. 395, § 17; P.L. 1934, ch. 2113, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 606, § 17; G.L. 1956, § 11-42-2; impl. am
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Rhode Island General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Rhode Island statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.