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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 27, 1994                   TAG: 9401270087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DALE EISMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN APPROVES TOUGH PACKAGE OF CRIME BILLS

Gov. George Allen gave his administration's imprimatur to a package of get-tough-on-criminals bills Wednesday but reaffirmed his belief that "we [don't] need any further restrictions on semiautomatic weapons."

As a roomful of police officers from across the state watched and the head of the state's largest police group stood alongside, Allen said his program would give officers "the tools they need to protect us from the hardened, violent career criminal."

Allen's bills include:

A mandatory five-year prison term for the use of a gun in a felony (current law provides a two-year sentence).

A "three-strikes-and-you're-out" bill to provide mandatory life prison terms for those convicted of a third violent felony and longer terms for those convicted of a second violent offense.

A proposal to let juries hear evidence of a defendant's criminal record before sentencing. Allen said he wants to keep jury sentencing - Virginia is one of a handful of states that continue to involve juries in sentencing - but he asserted that jurors, like judges, should have background information when they pass sentence. The administration package also includes a bill to permit juries in capital cases to hear evidence of the impact of the crime on the victim's family.

A constitutional amendment to expand the state's right of appeal in criminal cases.

$15.4 million in additional spending. About two-thirds of that would keep the Mecklenburg Correctional Center open another year. Former Gov. Douglas Wilder had proposed closing the prison, which is the most expensive to run in the state system.

Allen's opposition to gun control is a marked, if expected, departure from that of Wilder, who made gun control the centerpiece of his final year in office. Allen, who had financial and other support from the National Rifle Association during his campaign, said he continues to view gun control as a "placebo" rather than a real deterrent to violent crimes.

Garth Wheeler of Virginia Beach, president of the state Fraternal Order of Police, endorsed Allen's package of bills but said his group still supports the restrictions on assault weapons that many of its members helped Wilder push last year.

"Right now, our priorities are to attack the criminals on the street," he said, apparently signaling that the FOP will not make a strong gun-control effort this year.

Gun-control advocates said they were disappointed by Allen's program. "It's obvious that the majority of Virginians and the majority of Americans feel there's no need for military-style assault weapons," said Alice Mountjoy of Norfolk, a leader in Virginians Against Handgun Violence.

Richmond lawyer Randolph Rollins, who was Wilder's public safety secretary, conceded that with the General Assembly now almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, Allen probably can block further gun laws just by holding GOP lawmakers in line behind him.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994

by CNB