Mendelson Stalls Mayor's Proposal On Prison Terms

A proposal by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) to establish mandatory minimum prison sentences for a variety of crimes, including possession of armor-piercing bullets, is meeting resistance from a key D.C. Council member.

Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the judiciary committee, is seeking to strip mandatory minimum penalties from the mayor's crime bill. He contends that the sentencing structure is ineffective.

The mayor's office and D.C. police union officials have criticized Mendelson's stance.

Union officials said they were lobbying aggressively to win approval of a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison for people convicted of possession of armor-piercing bullets. They said those bullets can penetrate officers' bullet-resistant vests.

"The only reason to have this kind of ammunition is to kill police officers," said Officer Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the D.C. police labor committee for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1. "It sends a terrible message to everybody if you remove the mandatory minimum. There is no reason for anybody to possess this type of ammunition."

The mayor submitted his crime bill to the D.C. Council a year ago, saying the measure would deter crime by stiffening sentences for gun, sex and gang crimes. It also would enhance sentences for people convicted of harming juveniles.

The bill called for mandatory minimum prison sentences for several offenses, including seven years for possessing armor-piercing bullets, five years for crimes of violence against juveniles and one year for illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

D.C. law now has only a few mandatory minimum sentences, such as 30 years for first-degree murder.

Mendelson is circulating a draft of the bill along with his proposed changes to other council members. He said his committee will probably vote on the issue in the next few weeks.

Prosecutors and police support the idea of mandatory minimum sentences, saying the certainty of punishment deters crime.

Criminal defense lawyers and civil liberties groups maintain that the laws take away too much of a judge's discretion at sentencing. For example, they said, a first-time offender could get the same term as someone with a lengthy criminal record. They support voluntary guidelines, now widely used in D.C. Superior Court, to help judges determine prison terms.

Mendelson said mandatory minimum sentences turn over too much discretion to prosecutors. Instead of prosecuting someone for carrying armor-piercing ammunition, the U.S. attorney's office could urge a defendant to plead guilty to a lesser charge that avoids the minimum, Mendelson said.

"The reason mandatory minimums sound good is because they sound like a bad guy is going to do jail time -- 'You do the crime, you do the time,' " Mendelson said. "But that is not the case at all. Mandatory minimums are discretionary to the prosecutor. You do the crime, and the prosecutor decides maybe to charge you with something else."

In response to the police union criticism, Mendelson said the current punishment for carrying armor-piercing bullets is a maximum of one year in prison. His proposal would boost that to up to 10 years behind bars, he said.

"I am making that penalty 10 times as stringent as it is now," Mendelson said.

Vince Morris, the mayor's spokesman, said Williams was disappointed that Mendelson is pushing for the revisions. He also complained about the delay in moving the mayor's crime bill forward, saying it is "disgraceful that it has taken council member Mendelson a year to do this."

Mendelson said the bill was complex and needed a lengthy vetting process.