SOME SEE TIDE TURNING ON 'THREE STRIKES'LAW

Crime: There's a new sense that change is in the air at a candlelight vigil
in Orange.

Orange-The candlelight vigil Sunday night was meant to be a somber
affair for those with family and friends who have been sent to prison
for 25 years to life under the state's "three strikes, you're out"
law.

But bubbling to the surface among the 80 or so people gathered at the
Orange Circle was an excitement that the tide is turning, that
politicians and judges and citizens are beginning to understand that
the law may be flawed.

"Last year, we were lucky to get four people in a room together," said
activist Tim Carpenter. "Now, here in the 'three strikes' stronghold
of Orange County, all these people come out."

Not only that - there are three bills in Sacramento that would revise
the law or at least examine its unintended effects, including one by
Assemblyman Scott Baugh, R-Huntington Beach.

Sue Reams says her son was among those unjustly sentenced under the
law, designed to keep habitually violent criminals off the streets.
After two burglary convictions, Shane Reams was convicted of being a
lookout as a friend sold $20 of rock cocaine to an undercover officer.
He's serving a 25-years-to-life sentence in Pleasant Valley State Prison.

"I think Shane was wrong, but he's not that wrong," said Sue Reams, an
insurance broker from Fountain Valley.

Superior Court Judge Jim Gray was on hand to show his
support.

"We've gone to an absurd extreme here in Orange County where a guy was
recently sentenced to 25 to life for failure to appear (in court),"
Gray said. "We have to have sensible laws."