‘1 Strike’ Bill on Sex Offenses Stalls in Senate : Legislature: Panel finds bill mandating life sentences for rapists, child molesters too broad. Bergeson gets more time.

A key state Senate committee gave an Orange County lawmaker’s “one strike” bill for sex offenders a testy reception Monday and threatened to water it down, but then put off a decision until later this month.

In the first test for the measure, the Senate Judiciary Committee delayed a vote after state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) asked that she be allowed to rework the bill in hopes of assuaging concerns of committee members.

Bergeson’s bill, which she is carrying for Gov. Pete Wilson and has been dubbed “one strike and you’re in for life,” would require that rapists and child molesters spend life in prison without the possibility of parole after a single offense.

Several members of the Judiciary Committee argued that the bill was too broad and suggested that it be killed or softened by incorporating language from a competing measure carried by Assemblyman Bob Epple (D-Cerritos). Epple’s measure would apply a life sentence without parole only when rape was committed during a kidnaping or residential burglary, plus either a weapon was used or a victim suffered great bodily harm.

Faced with that fate, Bergeson asked the committee for more time, saying that the language in Epple’s bill would undermine her measure’s efforts to combat child molestation. The committee agreed, and asked Bergeson to work with Epple to fashion a compromise.

The decision to delay action came after several rape victims told the committee their stories and pleaded for changes in the law.

“It’s too late to help me, but not too late to help others,” said one woman who was raped and tortured by her husband after she filed for divorce. Another woman, who still is grappling with the aftermath of a 1988 rape, said, “It may seem harsh to be putting someone in prison for a life sentence, but I and other victims of this crime will be serving life sentences.”

Bergeson, meanwhile, noted that 250 rapists are released from state prison each month and said her bill is necessary to ensure perpetrators of sex crimes are “not given a chance to commit those crimes again.”

But those arguments did little to sway the Democrat-dominated panel.

“This measure is overly broad,” said Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward). “This is an understandable emotional reaction to our trauma, but it’s not good law.”

Critics contend sentences for rape already are severe enough, noting that under existing law felons convicted for sex crimes routinely serve consecutive prison sentences for each conviction, with additional counts adding to their time behind bars. Rapists currently can be punished with a sentence of up to eight years for a single count, with additional time for more counts.

They also have suggested that the threat of life sentences for child molesters could have a chilling effect on families that might otherwise report a problem in their midst. Moreover, some say that life sentences for crimes such as date rape would be too severe.

Some also suggested that proponents of the bill have exaggerated the incidence of rapists repeating their crimes. A 15-year study completed in 1988 by the state Department of Justice found that one of five convicted sex offenders were arrested again for rape.

Lockyer said those findings tend to undermine arguments about repeat rapists.

“If four of five offenders don’t re-offend, but you’re willing to put them all away to get at the one in five, I don’t know that that’s justice,” Lockyer said.

He also predicted Bergeson’s bill, combined with the recently approved “three strikes” measure for repeat felons, would put too great a strain on state prisons.

“We’re bankrupting the state with all of these good intentions,” Lockyer said.