Patrick said Saturday that he will send a crime bill back to the Legislature with an amendment that would allow parole in some cases for repeat violent offenders convicted under the legislation's so-called three strikes provision.
Pictured, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signs the Fiscal Year 2013 state budget in the State House. Patrick signed into a law on Sunday a $32.5 billion state budget and also vetoed millions for several programs. The spending plan also includes vetoes totaling $32.1 million for a human services salary reserve, the probation and mental health departments and other programs. (AP Photo/The Boston Globe, Dina Rudick)BOSTON - Unsatisfied by the lack of judicial discretion in the sentencing bill before him, Gov. Deval Patrick on Saturday sent back the reform bill sometimes called “three strikes” or “Melissa’s bill” asking the Legislature to add a “safety valve” so that habitual offenders might be able to avoid serving the maximum sentence without parole.
Patrick’s amendment would allow a judge to add the option of parole for habitual offenders convicted of a certain third felony and marked to receive the maximum sentence without the possibility of parole under the bill the Legislature sent Patrick last week with veto-proof and bipartisan support.
“I believe the new habitual offender law should include limited judicial discretion to ensure that this expansion of mandatory sentencing does not have unjust consequences,” Patrick wrote in a letter he planned to file with the Legislature around noon Saturday. “None of us is wise or prescient enough to foresee each and every circumstance in which the new habitual offender provisions may apply.”
The recent push to deny parole to the state’s worst offenders was motivated by the Dec. 26, 2010 killing of a Woburn police officer John “Jack” Maguire by Dominic Cinelli, who was out on parole. However, the movement for more stringent sentencing of repeat offenders dates back many years and has been pushed for a decade by Les Gosule, who Patrick reached out to on Saturday, explaining the reason for his amendment.
Gosule, whose daughter Melissa was raped and murdered by a repeat offender in 1999, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. His assistant, Mike Scully, said Gosule was reviewing the amendment and assessing the situation and planned to reach out to legislative leaders. Scully said some prosecutors have expressed concern that a discretion provision could lead to “judicial shopping” among defendants to avoid longer sentences.
Patrick’s action drew a quick rebuke from House Republican and longtime bill supporter Rep. Brad Hill who told the News Service, “We’re disappointed. We’re frustrated.” Hill said, “We put out a balanced bill.”
In his letter to lawmakers, Patrick said he was influenced by Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland’s letter dated Thursday. In it, Ireland said the SJC review of habitual offender convictions would not provide the opportunity for changing sentences and the new reviews – which are currently limited to first-degree murder convictions – would hamper the court in its attempts to take up other cases. Patrick’s chief legal counsel made a “verbal inquiry” to the court earlier in the week, according to Patrick’s press secretary, Kim Haberlin.
Patrick has praised other aspects of the bill that reduce the minimum sentences for drug offenses and reduce the size of school zones used to increase drug sentences.
“I have proposed a narrow amendment. If the court determines that it is in the 'interest of justice and upon a finding on the record of substantial and compelling reasons,' the court would have the authority to allow parole eligibility for a habitual offender after serving 2/3 of the maximum sentence (or after 25 years in the case of a life sentence),” Patrick wrote in a letter to supporters of Melissa’s Law.
However, adding a “safety valve” to allow for judges to grant parole would fundamentally change the law, say its supporters, who crafted the bill during roughly eight months of conference committee deliberations.
“That would gut the bill,” House Speaker Robert DeLeo told WBZ-TV’s Jon Keller. He said, “We took the most heinous of crimes and made it apply to this law to make sure that the worst of the worst are those that are going to be affected.”
The House passed the bill 139-14 and it cleared the Senate 31-7. While legislative leaders appear to have the votes to override a veto, they would not have the opportunity to do so if they reject Patrick’s amendment and he then vetoes the bill after formal sessions end for the year on Tuesday.
Patrick expressed his hope that he will be able to sign an amended bill.
“I do not send this bill back to you lightly,” the governor wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “I recognize that the time remaining is short in this formal legislative session, and there are many who would like to see this bill signed into law in its present form. Nevertheless, I believe that this single change would significantly improve this bill. I ask that you give this amendment your prompt and thoughtful consideration, and return the bill with the amendment included in time for me to sign it into law next week.”
Patrick said this week he wants to avoid a repeat of 2010 when his eleventh hour amendment to a casino bill helped kill that proposal because the Legislature, which sent him the bill as they were finishing formal sessions for the year, was out of session and unable to vote on the amendment.
Through his spokesperson Seth Gitell, DeLeo said the House would take up the governor’s sentencing bill amendment before the end of formal sessions – formal House and Senate sessions are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. A spokesperson for Senate President Therese Murray declined to comment.
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr told the News Service that even if lawmakers reject the governor’s amendment, Patrick’s actions on Saturday could jettison the bill for the current session because if both chambers send the legislation back, the governor could veto the bill after lawmakers have finished formal session for the year.
“The choice to try to insert this into the process now in the eleventh hour is deeply, deeply unfortunate,” Tarr said. He said “The clock shouldn’t be the arbiter of public safety in Massachusetts.”
Legislative leaders will add Patrick’s amendment to a long list of unfinished business, with only formal sessions scheduled for Monday and Tuesday to complete work on dozens of significant bills, including health care cost control, transportation financing, energy system reform, and economic development legislation.
[Michael Norton contributed reporting]