CA SENATE COMMITTE OK'S BILL TO EASE THREE-STRIKES LAW

For maximum sentence, third conviction would have to be violent offense.
Measure's prospects are uncertain.

SACRAMENTO--Urged on by Southland supporters who took an all-night bus ride
to get here, a state Senate committee approved a measure Tuesday to ease
California's tough three-strikes sentencing law.

Prospects for enactment of the bill, which would require that the
third-strike conviction be a violent offense before the maximum sentence
could be imposed, appear dubious.

The legislation would remove what is widely viewed as the law's harshest
component: a 25-year-to-life sentence upon conviction of a third felony,
even if the third conviction is for a nonviolent, low-impact crime.

In an emotion-charged atmosphere in the hearing room, created by relatives
and supporters of inmates from Los Angeles, Orange County and other areas,
senators on the Senate Public Safety Committee heard from witnesses who
said the three-strikes law often sends felons to prison for seemingly minor
offenses.

Roberta Robles of Santa Ana, co-founder of Californians Against Three
Strikes, said her husband received a 25-years-to-life prison term for
"attempting to possess" imitation rock cocaine--which turned out to be a
macadamia nut--offered to him by undercover police.

Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), chairman of the committee and
author of the bill (SB2048), said the Robles incident "makes the law
incredible and stupid."

Other witnesses related statistics, supported by the Department of
Corrections, showing that most California inmates are serving time for
nonviolent offenses.

About 45 supporters from two organizations with chapters throughout the
state attended the hearing, then moved outside for a peaceful demonstration
on the Capitol steps.

On Monday night, about half of the activists had set out by bus for the
Capitol from Southern California.

The Vasconcellos bill would require amending a statute that was enacted at
the polls as well as by the Legislature in 1994.

Backers' most likely course to change the law would be to secure two-thirds
majority passage in both houses and the signature of Gov. Pete Wilson--who
vigorously supported the three-strikes law as it stands today.

Copyright Los Angeles Times