|
Landmark Calif. Sentencing Law Back Before Voters
2 hours, 55 minutes ago Top Stories - Reuters
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Californians who a decade ago voted in a landslide for a "Three Strikes" measure imposing long prison terms on career criminals are being asked to scale back that law by those who say it has unjustly snared small-time offenders.
But the proposed fix, which would amend Three Strikes through a November ballot initiative, has run into a buzz saw of opposition from across the political spectrum -- including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites), all 68 of the state's district attorneys, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record) and every major state taxpayers and victim's rights group.
They say Proposition 66 would gut one of the most effective pieces of crime legislation ever passed in California and, because it would be retroactive, release as many as 26,000 violent felons.
"The proponents (of Proposition 66) accuse us of using scare tactics, and absolutely we are," said Brian Gurwitz, an Orange County prosecutor on leave to fight the ballot initiative. "It's scary to let pedophiles and rapists and murderers back into community. People should be frightened. It's a legitimate response to this dangerous initiative."
Backers of the proposed amendment say Three Strikes was sold to voters as a means to lock away hard core criminals for life but that too often it was being used against petty thieves or drug abusers.
Under Proposition 66 only a serious or violent felony would count as a second or third strike against a defendant and fewer crimes would fit that definition. Attempted burglary, conspiracy to commit assault and nonresidential arson are among the crimes that would no longer count as strikes.
A TALE OF THREE FATHERS
California's Three Strikes law was first conceived by Fresno wedding photographer Mike Reynolds after his teenage daughter, Kimber, was shot to death in 1992 by a pair of career criminals. It initially attracted little interest from legislators even as the state reeled from record crime rates.
Then came the October 1993 kidnapping, rape and strangulation of 12-year-old Polly Klaas by Richard Allen Davis, who had been paroled from prison that June despite a long list of prior convictions.
The Klaas case horrified Californians and galvanized lawmakers -- who quickly passed the Three Strikes law as emergency legislation. Some 72 percent of voters approved a Three Strikes initiative in November of 1994.
California prosecutors credit Three Strikes with a 45 percent drop in violent crime since 1994. Both Reynolds and Polly's father, Marc Klaas, bitterly oppose Proposition 66.
But instrumental in getting Proposition 66 on the ballot was Jerry Keenan, whose son Richard is serving eight years in prison after crashing his Lexus while intoxicated, killing two people and injuring a third.
"Ten years ago I voted for something that I thought would affect only people who committed violent crimes," Keenan, who owns an insurance brokerage, told Reuters in an interview. "Eight years ago I found out that's not quite true. No matter how any D.A. wants to spin it the reality is they can pick and choose who they throw strikes at."
Keenan's heavy support of Proposition 66 galls opponents, who say he is bankrolling it out of self-interest and that without him it never would have made it before voters.
"Jerry Keenan has spent a million and a half dollars to get this thing on the ballot," prosecutor Gurwitz said. "This is a case of a wealthy father who is trying to buy an early prison release for his son who killed two people."
Keenan says that while he and his wife Cynthia have contributed heavily to the campaign for the ballot proposal, he is not on a crusade to buy his son's freedom.
This guy is a jackass, and so is his son.
"Molon labe".
Leonidas, King of Sparta,
Thermopylae, 480 B.C.
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
