
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 17, 1994                   TAG: 9403170187
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

JUDGES ARGUE AGAINST CRIME BILL

The federal courts are telling Congress they oppose key portions of a pending crime bill, including mandatory life sentences for some three-time losers.

``The judiciary has opposed mandatory minimum sentences. There are a number of these in the bill, including ... mandatory life sentences for persons convicted of a third felony offense,'' a U.S. Judicial Conference committee told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jack Brooks, D-Tex.

A crime bill passed by the Senate and awaiting House action would impose mandatory life terms on people convicted of a third violent crime or major drug felony when the third conviction is in federal court. Some have called it the ``three strikes, you're out'' proposal.

The provision was criticized in a letter by U.S. District Judge Maryann Trump Barry of Newark, N.J., chairwoman of the Judicial Conference's committee on criminal law. The letter was made public Wednesday by David Sellers, a spokesman for the conference that serves as a board of directors for the federal court system.

Barry also took issue with a crime bill provision that would impose minimum mandatory penalties for using guns in federal offenses and in violent crimes where the weapon crossed state lines.

``The Senate crime bill would create many federal offenses for activities that have traditionally and properly been prosecuted by the states,'' she told Brooks. ``Many of these should remain the responsibility of the states.''

Also Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee approved legislation that would allow the five-year mandatory minimum terms of almost 4,000 federal prisoners to be shortened to two years.

The legislation was passed as part of a measure intended as a ``safety valve'' for certain first-time, nonviolent drug offenders that was approved 26-9, with the committee's 21 Democrats joined by five of its Republicans.

The measure - co-sponsored by crime subcommittee chairman Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill. - would eliminate the five-year mandatory minimum sentence for qualifying defendants.

In its place, it would substitute a sentencing guideline that would recommend a minimum sentence of two years.

The committee by voice vote approved an amendment to the Schumer-Hyde measure that would make the new sentencing retroactive for qualifying prisoners who have records of good behavior.

by CNB