CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / ATTORNEY GENERAL : Lungren Endorses Harsher Penalties for Rape-Kidnaping

Republican state attorney general candidate Dan Lungren on Thursday called for life prison sentences for criminals convicted of kidnaping for the purpose of rape or other sexual crimes.

Lungren’s proposal, which he identified at a Los Angeles press conference as the “Lungren Crime Law,” is strikingly similar in content to a bill introduced in the state Senate in February by President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles).

Both proposals call for a sentence of life without the possibility of parole in cases where victims of rape-kidnap suffer bodily harm or death. Both proposals also call for a sentence of life with the possibility of parole in cases where those victims do not die or suffer bodily harm.

Roberti’s bill, approved by the Senate in June, was significantly watered down by the Assembly Committee on Public Safety earlier this month; the punishment for rape-kidnap was reduced to five-, eight- or 11-year sentences. The bill is facing final Assembly action in August. Lungren’s bill will be introduced in the Assembly in January by Assemblyman Bill Jones (R-Fresno).

At his press conference, Lungren termed as “stupid” the current kidnaping statute, which mandates life sentences for people convicted of kidnap for ransom but far less stringent penalties for those convicted of rape-kidnap.

“Women and children are valued less than currency,” declared Lungren.

Marc Dann, campaign manager for Lungren’s Democratic foe, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith, said later that Smith “also wants to toughen up kidnap laws . . . and penalties for sexual assault.”

But Dann, whose candidate has received the endorsement of the National Organization for Women, criticized Lungren for having opposed, while in Congress, federal assistance for rape victims seeking abortions.

“If Dan Lungren was sincere about protecting women from violence,” Dann said in a telephone interview, “he wouldn’t expose them to the violence of illegal abortions.”