3 Strikes Petition challenges Connecticut lawmakers to call for tougher penalties
Connecticut campaigner Jessica Ryan has made waves in Connecticut with her petition for 3-Strikes law reform. Republican lawmakers agree and have cited overwhelming public interest in changing the law as their reason for seeking reform. GoPetition.com has been instrumental in this campaign pressure.
Annie Rourke of WTNH.com illustrated the issues in the following note.
Conn. lawmakers call for tougher penalties in wake of Cheshire tragedy
(Hartford-WTNH) _ Governor Jodi Rell is among the state lawmakers calling for reforms following the deadly Cheshire home invasion.
The gruesome crime, allegedly by suspects already in the system, has sparked thousands of Connecticut residents to sign an online petition favoring the so-called 3-strikes law.
Connecticut lawmakers are responding to the tragedy, and to their constituents concerns, debating if harsher punishments are needed in our state since both suspects had long, criminal records.
"I know we give judges a lot of leeway into decide how long a sentence ought to be but maybe we need to look at more standards," said Governor Rell.
Forty-four year old Stephen Hayes and 26-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky were out on parole, but their prior convictions were for burglary and other non-violent offenses, so they didn't qualify for Connecticut's three strikes you're out law. Rell is now asking lawmakers to change that by classifying home invasions and night-time burglaries as violent crimes so offenders would serve 85-percent of their sentences.
Republican Senators are taking it farther, saying they want a tougher three strikes law, one that carries a mandatory 25 to life prison sentence. Their opponents tell News Channel 8 that adding more laws won't fix what's broken with the system.
"He could've been charged under our repeat offender laws and he wasn't and why that happened, we have to figure out," said State Representative Mike Lawlor.
Lawlor says there were red flags for both Hayes and Komisarjevsky, but information was lost between the police, prosecutors and the parole board. And he says, mandatory sentencing causes other problems. There are currently 19,000 convicts in Connecticut and our capacity is for just 17,000.
"Trust me when I tell you a lack of bed space in prison should not be a reason for letting a hardened criminal out," said Rell.
That seems to be a popular sentiment. About 5,000 people have signed an on-line petition for a tougher three-strikes law in just a few days. Lawlor says, he wants to work with the governor to find the loopholes, but look at all the options, including what we can afford.
"At the end of the day, we need to find a system that will actually work, not one that just sounds good in a press conference," said Lawlor.
Lawmakers are hoping to vote on a tougher 3-strikes law by the end of the summer.
For more information about the petition, please visit http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/ct-needs-a-3-strikes-law.html