STATE WISELY ACTS QUICKLY TO REPAIR `THREE STRIKES' LAW

A n appellate court struck down Florida's ``three strikes'' law the
other day, but lawmakers have already moved to correct the law's
technical deficiencies. The Three-Strike Violent Felony Offender Act
was one of Gov. Jeb Bush's early achievements and one he credits with
helping lower significantly the state's crime rate.

The measure requires judges to give the maximum sentence to people
who commit their third violent crime. Drug dealers and those who
assault the police or the elderly also receive maximum sentences.

So it was for Rebecca Taylor, who last January pleaded no contest to
drug trafficking. She argued at sentencing that the judge should not
impose the maximum three-year minimum mandatory sentence because the
law violates the Florida Constitution's single-subject rule. The 2nd
District Court of Appeal agreed.

The three-judge panel declared the law unconstitutional, citing two
provisions not ``naturally and logically related to each other and to
the legislatively stated purpose of the act,'' which was to make sure
repeat violent-felony offenders serve maximum time.

One of the provisions stands out because it was added as an amendment
just before the measure was adopted. But by changing the definition
of ``conveyance'' as used in the burglary statute, the Legislature
stepped beyond dealing with violent repeat offenders and violated the
single-subject rule.

As the court pointed out, the amendment dealing with the conveyance
definition appears to have been an afterthought, ``exactly the type
of `log rolling' legislation that the single subject rule was
intended to prevent.''

Unfortunately, when passing legislation at the eleventh hour, which
is typical, legislators sometimes make these technical errors - this
time to the detriment of a successful law.

Lawmakers from the governor on down seem prepared to repair the
constitutional infirmities and adopt a revised law even before the
Supreme Court reviews the 2nd District's opinion.

Sen. Victor Crist, the Tampa Republican who sponsored the original
legislation as a House member in 1999, says the problems could be
fixed in a couple of weeks. And state Rep. Charlie Justice, a St.
Petersburg Democrat, has already written the governor and Speaker Tom
Feeney to say he will file new ``three strikes'' legislation ``to put
the law back on the books.''

This is an important law because it creates a greater certainty of
punishment for violent and repeat criminals. Legislators are
justified in moving quickly to answer the court's concerns.