Move to Bypass Committee, Vote on Murder Law Seen as Blow to Brown

In yet another assault on Willie Brown’s embattled speakership, Republicans and a group of rebellious conservative Democrats teamed up Friday to revive legislation that would toughen the penalty for juveniles 16 and over convicted of first-degree murder.

Republicans and the dissident “Gang of Five” Democrats were able to bypass the Assembly’s committee system by amending into an unrelated measure on the Assembly floor a piece of anti-crime legislation that they argue has been bottled up in committees dominated by Brown-appointed liberals.

It is a tactic that in the last two months has led to the Assembly approving legislation extending the death penalty to murderers of children under age 14--the first time a death penalty bill had cleared the house in more than a decade--and giving police the authority to use wiretaps in major drug investigations. Gov. George Deukmejian last week signed the wiretap measure into law.

Just last Monday, the Assembly, at the urging of one of the five Democrats, who have been challenging Brown’s authority, amended another bill on the Assembly floor with a provision extending the death penalty to murderers of witnesses in juvenile cases.

Friday’s action had clear election-year overtones. Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro), who is locked in a fierce primary battle, carried the latest amendments, which were added to an unrelated bill, by Assemblyman Tim Leslie (R-Carmichael), dealing with penalties for burglaries.

Felando’s principal primary opponent, Deane Dana III, has based part of his campaign on a promise that he will work to oust Brown, while at the same time criticizing Felando as being part of a Republican establishment that, for its own political purposes, has helped keep the Speaker in power.

The Felando amendment--which could help Felando distance himself from Brown in the final days of the campaign--would give Juvenile Court judges the authority to sentence youths between the ages of 16 and 18, who are convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances, to life in state prison without the possibility of parole or to a term of 25 years to life.

Despite protests from some Democrats that the amendment had not been given a hearing in the Assembly Public Safety Committee, the measure passed easily on a 48-6 bipartisan vote, with Brown among those voting no. A vote on the amended bill itself could occur as early as next week.

Felando told his colleagues that “in the eyes of family survivors,” there is no difference between juveniles or adults who are “cold-blooded killers.”

Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Alhambra), one of the Gang of Five, made a plea for the amendment. In an interview after the vote, he said the action was “another example of the Gang of Five-Republican effort.” The amendment, he said, was made on the Assembly floor because it was clear it would have a difficult time surviving in the liberal-dominated Public Safety Committee.

Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Tarzana), a member of that committee, said the way the bill was amended on the floor was an affront to the Assembly’s established committee system.