SENATE REJECTS CHANGE TO 'THREE-STRIKES' LAW

An attempt to exempt a series of non-violent felonies from California's
"three strikes, you're out" prison sentencing law was rejected Wednesday by
the state Senate.

The measure by Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, got only 14 votes. It
needed at least 27, a two-thirds majority, to move to the Assembly. Twenty
senators voted no.

But the Senate approved another Polanco bill that would set up three-judge
panels to rule on parole for prisoners who had served more than the
suggested term under sentencing matrices used by the Board of Prison Terms.

Polanco said it would take politics out of parole decisions.