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The Legacy: Murder & Media, |
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Jeff Long, Legislative Analyst, "The first time it came around we never really did a fiscal assessment of it because it didn't pass the so-called giggle tests and it wasn't worth the effort because this thing wasn't gonna go anywhere because it was so patently stupid." When Assemblywoman Barbara Lee was first elected to the Assembly on the Public Safety Committee, she began to review the 3-Strikes law prior to the Polly Klaas tragedy but she and other members were completely against it and continued to vote "no", so the bill never got out of the committee. The John & Ken show on KFI Radio got word of this and were outraged that the Public Safety Committee wouldn't vote on 3-Strikes. So they got hold of the names and phone numbers of 3-Strikes opposers and broadcast them every hour urging people to call. They generated so many calls that the Assembly's switchboard in Sacramento shut down. People called and accused the Assembly members of being responsible for Polly Klaas' death. John Kobylt of the John & Ken Show: "Because it was such an easy call. You had a dead 12 year old girl strangled, maybe sexually abused and you had this beast, this monster, Richard Allen Davis that we caught how many times before? How many times was he arrested and convicted and then released to prey upon this little girl? Now, WHO is gonna be against a law that would put this guy away forever, who?" People channeled their rage to get even tougher laws passed and the rational minds that normally would have suggest backing off a little, let's think about this for a minute, were silent. It was unprecedented. Both Father's did many news interviews hailing the benefits of passing the 3-Strikes law. The same people were committing the same crimes over and over again. Let's lock them up for good. They appealed to lawmakers in person. The Petaluma Polly Klaas Foundation Center was transformed into a 3-Strikes headquarters. Marc Klaas says, "There was no sleep, there was no food, there was nothing but anger for the person that had committed the crime against Polly and the system that had allowed him to be in a position to do something like that and that was what had to be corrected. And we were going to use anger to correct it." Suddenly, 3-Strikes had become the fastest qualifying initiative in the history of California. They now not only had enough signatures to quality the 400,000 that they needed, but they'd gathered over 800,000 signatures. All in the name of Polly Klaas and Richard Allen Davis. Shorty thereafter, the politicians jumped into the pool. Polly Klaas had become the 3-Strikes posterchild. Mike Reynolds believes that 3-Strikes only pertains to violent felonies. That was the only message that was ever given out. That 3-Strikes was meant to get violent offenders off the streets. And this is where the fathers started to part ways. Joe Klaas started to get suspicious. He wondered what exactly was considered a violent felony? Residential burglary was listed as a felony and that is a burglary of an unoccupied house. He says, "There's a difference between a person who goes into an unoccupied house to steal a stereo system and somebody who goes with ropes and gags and a knife to steal a child! Quite a bit of difference. I've had a grandchild stolen and a stereo stolen and there's no comparison. I think it's OBSCENE to equate stealing a stereo with stealing a child and giving the same penalty for both." Superior Court Judge LaDoris H. Cordell explains, "There are over 500 crimes in California classified as felonies and they range from murder and violent assaults to writing a bad check, 2nd conviction for shoplifting, possession of a small amount of drugs. Now if the defendant has one strike under the 3-Strikes sentencing formula, conviction of another felony no mater what the felony effectively results in the tripling of the time served for that crime. If the defendant has 2 strikes and is convicted of another felony, for example a useable amount of cocaine the punishment must be 25 years to life. That's it. That's the 3-Strikes law." The night before Governor Pete Wilson's Crime Summit was the first time that Joe Klaas spoke out against 3-Strikes at a town hall that was aired by Channel 5 in San Francisco. An excerpt from this broadcast shows Joe sitting in the audience, listening to every single person that spoke supporting 3-Strikes and not one of them acted like they knew that it applied to non-violent crimes. When he couldn't stand it any longer, he stood up and angrily spoke about how a month ago he supported 3-Strikes because he thought that it dealt with violent criminals and it does not. It deals with 19 criminals for every violent criminal. When Joe first tried to convince his son Marc of the wrongness of 3-Strikes, they had terrific arguments. Joe argued, "You don't have to put half the population of the state in prison to get at people like Davis. All you gotta do is get at people like Davis." Ironically, the thing that started to move Marc Klaas away from 3-Strikes was Governor Pete Wilson. He suggested that there might be a better alternative. One of the proposals was the Rainey Bill. It offered a common-sense alternative to 3-Strikes. It went after only violent offenders, had truth in sentencing, 100% time served,very strong enhancements for 2nd and 3rd strike felonies and it also had a one-strike law for people that molest children. It had everything that they were looking for. In February of 1994, Governor Wilson invited Mike Reynolds and Marc Klaas to his Crime Summit. Marc decided to use the opportunity to speak out against 3-Strikes in favor of the Rainey bill. From that point on, Governor Wilson proceeded to fully embrace 3-Strikes. Ya see, his approval rating was down and it was election time again. Logic and reason and what's right and just were out the window. Almost every politician that was running knew that the public was still enraged and that if they wanted to get elected, they better get behind 3-Strikes. The elections were 3 months away. Mike Reynold's signatures guaranteed his initiative a place on the ballot. Bill Jones reintroduced the legislative version of 3-Strikes, AB971. So the 2nd time Mike Reynolds went to speak in front of the legislature, he didn't get a pat on the head but was saluted. Legislative analysts tried to figure out how much 3-Strikes would cost but the election happy politicians weren't listening. Information was gathered from the Department of Corrections, Governor Wilson's prisons. They had to predict the cost of 3-Strikes, evaluate how many people would come into the prisons as a result of the law. They said that two-third's of the people affected by 3-Strikes will be guilty of non-violent crimes. The cost was astronomical. The Department of Corrections recommended to follow in the path of the State of Washington, change the law to go after only violent criminals. The sponsors would not change. Joe Klaas says, "When Marc finally realized that and realized he'd been on the wrong side, and that he was going to create an INCREDIBLE debt for the taxpayers of California if his name were continued to be used to support this Draconian measure just to slap everybody behind bars forever, just to get at the few, he felt guilty." They were enlightened now and felt a responsibility to the public to make things right. When Marc Klaas approached Governor Wilson and tried to get him to pull out of 3-Strikes, he had the audacity to reply, "Marc, you don't understand how the victims feel." |
All of a sudden the phones at Mike Reynold's 3-Strikes headquarters started to ring 1,000 at a time, which literally cooked the entire 800 system for the Valley. 18 operators over the next 10 days received 90,000 calls that turned into petitions. Something had happened. They had just found the body of Polly Klaas. The Klaas' started hearing about 3-Strikes. It would get people like Richard Allen Davis off the streets and keep them off. Mike Reynolds called Marc Klaas and explained all about 3-Strikes and asked if he would support it. Marc said of course. A large memorial was being organized for Polly. KGO Radio called Marc Klaas and asked him to come to the memorial. That day people stood 200 deep to pick up a petition and some people had travelled 80 to 90 miles for the privilege.