Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 6, 1993                   TAG: 9311060104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

SENATE ADDS TOUGHER STANCE ON JUVENILES TO CRIME BILL

The amendment - approved 64-23 during extended debate over the anti-crime package - would "make youngsters know they have to be accountable when they kill someone," said by Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill, who sponsored the amendment.

Moseley-Braun said existing law would bar youthful criminals from facing the death penalty and that the amendment would bar such young people from being held in an adult prison.

Faced with a threatened filibuster, the chamber turned back an attempt by Sen. James Exon, D-Neb., to deny all or most federal welfare, unemployment and health benefits to illegal aliens. It passed an alternative compromise amendment essentially restating federal law which already denies many of those benefits to people in the country illegally.

And it voted 75-19 to adopt an amendment by Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas allowing prosecutors in sexual-assault and child-molestation cases to introduce evidence that the defendant had committed similar crimes in the past.

Applauding earlier action on a major omnibus crime bill, President Clinton said the Senate's move Thursday night to adopt a financing package that could put 100,000 new police on the streets over the next five years "will do more in less time to lower the crime rate than anything else."

Speaking for his amendment, Dole said that in a rape case, "disclosure of the fact that the defendant has previously committed other rapes is often crucial, as the jury attempts to assess the credibility of a claim that the victim consented and that the defendant is being falsely accused."

He said that in a child molestation case, it is important to allow a defendant's past record to be admitted, if one exists, to bolster the credibility of the children who may be witnesses. "This amendment is about getting tough with criminals, and giving the victims of vicious sex crimes the justice they deserve," Dole said.

The Senate also approved by voice vote an amendment by Sen. William Cohen, R-Maine, dealing with health care fraud. It is aimed at permitting prosecutors to try alleged offenders under organized crime laws in cases in which patterns can be established of filing false claims, overcharging for drugs, prescribing unnecessary lab tests and billing Medicare for inferior medical supplies at inflated prices. Clinton has proposed some parts of Cohen's amendment in his plan for overhauling health care.