Wilson Rallies for ‘One-Strike’ Law : Sexual assault: Governor’s comments on date rape prompt criticism by NOW official.

Seeking to generate support for legislation to impose life prison terms on all first-time rapists, Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday instead appeared to be making the case for opponents who say the proposal’s inflexibility would impede prosecution and convictions in all but the worst cases of sexual assault.

Wilson, who was in Claremont to meet with community leaders who are upset over the potential release of serial rapist Christopher Hubbart, spoke briefly and then fielded a handful of questions from a friendly audience.

Answering one query, Wilson strayed onto the politically treacherous topic of date rape, the term used by some to describe the act of forcing sex on an acquaintance.

A man from nearby Claremont College told the governor he feared that the so-called “one-strike” proposal would mean life in prison for university students accused of pressuring their dates to have sex.

Wilson said that in his view, there is sometimes no difference between what is known as date rape and the forcible rape of a stranger.

But he also said: “I leave it to you to define date rape. If that is something that happens with consent and then results in some change of heart, that is a very different thing from someone who is attacked.”

Reassuring the questioner, Wilson added that the judicial system has what the governor called a safeguard for men falsely accused of rape.

Prosecutors, Wilson said, would be “very, very careful” and “not terribly willing to go forward” in cases that came down to one person’s word against another’s.

The governor’s implication that some women concoct rape charges after a change of heart prompted a quick retort from one women’s rights group.

And his admission that the mandatory life terms he proposes for first-time rapists would make district attorneys more reluctant to prosecute some cases is exactly what critics say is the bill’s biggest problem.

Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, said Wilson’s comments demonstrate a lack of knowledge of the fact that most rapes are committed by assailants who know their victims.

“These statements show how callous and uneducated Pete Wilson is with the fears women face on a daily basis,” Bruce said. The NOW leader was barred from attending the meeting where Wilson addressed 82 civic activists invited by the mayor and the city manager, but she reacted to his comments after being given an account of his remarks.

Bruce said Wilson’s rhetoric on rape--conjuring up the image of a masked man attacking a woman in a dark parking lot--is a “step backward” because it ignores what she said is the very serious problem of men forcing sex on women they know.

“It says real rape is only when you rape 100 women and you don’t know them,” she said. “That is the mentality that is fueling the epidemic of rape in our society.”

In his prepared remarks, Wilson said the release of Melvin Carter--the so-called College Terrace Rapist--and the near-release of Hubbart, who has been linked to 50 rapes over a 22-year period, were only the most recent examples of a sentencing system that he described as dangerously lenient.

“Hundreds more rapists will be released to our streets this month, next month and every month until we change the law,” he said. Men like Carter and Hubbart, he said, “should never, ever be released--not to any community.”

Rape now is punishable by as few as three years in prison, and Wilson says the average rapist is free in less than five years.

“We’ve got to change the law,” he said.

Although Bruce and others outside the hall said Wilson needed to do more to prevent rape, the governor said the one-strike bill would stop rape by keeping potential repeat offenders behind bars.

“One strike in my view shouldn’t be viewed as vengeful,” he said. “It should be viewed as preventive.”