Longer terms for gun crimes are state's aim

Legislators succeed with 'Crooks' bill

By TIM GHIANNI, Tennessean.com
June 14, 2007

Matthew Carlton was jogging in his Inglewood neighborhood late one night when a crook with a gun robbed him.

All he was carrying was a Walkman, which he gladly exchanged for his life.

"The thing with a gun is, somebody twitches, somebody makes a snap decision, and things are changed forever. You can't take it back," he says.

Carlton's experience of having a gun held to the back of his head has him hailing the Crooks With Guns legislation passed this week.

The bill tacks time on to the sentences of felons convicted of crimes in which a gun or guns were used.

"I think it's a great idea. I think it will be a deterrent," Carlton said.

Money lengthens terms

Pushing through some form of Crooks With Guns was a major goal of supporters during this legislative session. Beginning as a $60 million request from a coalition of police and prosecutors, the bill was amended and whittled to $23.5 million when both chambers passed it Monday.

The money helps pay for longer prison terms. The funding cut means corresponding cuts in the penalties sought by sheriffs, police chiefs and district attorneys who helped write the bill.

Even so, proponents say Crooks With Guns will be effective.

"It's going to be a bad year for people who use guns in crime," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rob Briley.

Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas echoed Briley.

"It's (money) that we didn't have this year to do this with."

Serpas said the law would give him a "laser-like approach to fighting crime" by putting gun-toting hoodlums away for longer periods of time.

Cost was a consideration

Determining the cost of longer prison sentences held up the bill.

"When you draft legislation, you draft it without regard to the cost," District Attorney General Torry Johnson said.

"So we drafted sort of the absolute best version in our mind that we could think of. Then we see how much is it going to cost, and it's up to the legislature and the governor to see what the state can afford."

Mark Norris, R-Collierville, Senate sponsor and Republican leader, said the original cost was exaggerated when the Office of Fiscal Review priced it based on what he says were "assumptions that weren't valid."

Several amendments lowered the price tag. The first version called for mandatory 10-year sentences to be tacked on to terms of felons who commit crimes using guns.

Now, the added sentencing is three, five, six and 10 years, depending on whether the gun is fired and on the convict's prior record. Less prison time means lower costs.

"This is a more precisely drawn bill that attempts to enhance sentences for some of the more prevalent, violent crime today," Norris said.

The Public Safety Coalition — police chiefs, sheriffs and district attorneys — had Speaker Jimmy Naifeh behind their proposal.

"The speaker was adamant that this year we were going to fund a very significant crime bill," Briley said. "In the nine years that I've been in the legislature, this is by far the most we have spent on any crime initiative.

"This is very targeted legislation that is going to have a significant impact on violent crime in the state."

Briley said legislators realized that some sentences did not need to be longer. Weapons crimes that "already are punished so severely that another year or three ain't going to make a difference" were taken out of the bill.

Murder and aggravated rape are 85 percent crimes, meaning the convict must serve that portion of a sentence rather than the 30 percent often served before parole eligibility.

The law "focuses on aggravated robbery, burglary, carjacking, attempted second-degree murder, felony drug crimes. If you use a handgun in commission of those, you are going to get some serious time tacked on," Briley said.

Bill targets incorrigible

The last debate on the House floor late Monday was over whether the bill means the state is giving up on education and rehabilitation of inmates.

Briley's response was that that will be dealt with but that this bill targets criminals who are incorrigible.

Serpas said there were plenty in that category: "In the last 12 months, there's about 13,500 people we have arrested for dangerous crimes. Thirty percent have already had a prior felony conviction. We are arresting the same felons over and over again."

As an example, the chief pointed to a case a week ago in south Nashville in which two brothers were arrested for robbery of $27 and change while on probation after they were sentenced in April to two years for attempted robbery.

"It costs a lot of money to keep those people in prison, but they don't want to do the right thing. There's a subset of people who refuse to be socially responsible," Serpas said.

Inglewood's Carlton said any legislation that would make him feel safer was good. Being robbed with a gun left a lasting mark.

"I still hear the cock of the hammer and (feel) the cold, hard barrel against my skull."