Senate Democrats Delay Vote on 3-Strikes Measure

Unable to reach an accord and facing opposition from prosecutors, Senate Democrats on Tuesday delayed a vote on a legislative response to the recent California Supreme Court ruling that softened the three-strikes sentencing law.

The hearing was abruptly canceled after Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) entered the committee room and conferred with members. Several prosecutors and other witnesses had gone to Sacramento to testify at the hearing.

“Senate Democrats are trying to figure what they want to do,” said Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento), who is carrying the measure. “It’s kind of like a camel chewing its cud.”

Criminal Procedure Committee Chairman Milton Marks (D-San Francisco) gave no indication whether the measure would be considered before the end of the legislative session this month.

Lockyer and Isenberg proposed the measure after the Democrat-controlled Criminal Procedure Committee voted down legislation by Senate GOP Leader Rob Hurtt of Garden Grove that sought to restrict judges’ authority to grant leniency in three-strikes cases.

The partisan battle broke out after the state Supreme Court ruled in June that trial court judges could overlook felons’ past crimes and impose sentences of less than 25 years to life in three-strikes cases.

The Lockyer-Isenberg proposal sought to require that judges impose lengthy three-strikes sentences in limited circumstances, such as when the felon’s most recent crime was violent. Hurtt is seeking stricter limits on judges’ authority in three-strikes cases.

Prosecutors backed Hurtt’s bill, but opposed a version of Isenberg’s bill that was circulated earlier in the week. The measure “essentially provides the judges with unfettered discretion, which is in contrast to [Hurtt’s bill],” said Lawrence Brown, lobbyist for the California District Attorneys Assn.