ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
For freshman state Sen. John Edwards, Wednesday presented an object lesson in the fine art of political point-making.
Or frustration. Take your pick.
The Roanoke Democrat tried repeatedly - so many times that even he couldn't be sure of the count afterward - to amend the proposed reform of the juvenile justice system.
That's the compromise bill that would mandate that teen-age offenders be tried as adults for specific violent crimes and take other steps recommended last year by gubernatorial and legislative commissions.
In the end, Edwards lost all but one of his proposed amendments, and that one was an 8-7 squeaker dealing with restricting public access to records of closed juvenile hearings.
"The tide has turned," joked Senate Courts of Justice Committee Chairman Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County, after the single win.
Edwards' repeated amendments, dealing with both substantive changes and technical details, clearly frustrated some Republican committee members as debate over the bill went into its third hour. Most of the attempts failed 10-5, with Edwards' only support coming from an urban, Democratic bloc of Richmond, Portsmouth and Fairfax County senators.
"I've been on the opposing side of a bill, and I've tried to nickel and dime them to death, and I think that's what we're doing," said Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach.
Edwards' was one of just three votes against the package as it moved on to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday evening.
"You don't ever want to give up on the juveniles," he said after the votes. "If there's any group in our society that can be rehabilitated, that's amenable to treatment, it's them."
A former federal prosecutor, Edwards wants to keep the handling of serious juvenile crimes the way it is now, with juvenile court judges deciding if a teen should be tried as an adult. He also objects to the idea of prosecutors deciding whether certain cases will be tried in juvenile or adult court, because he sees prosecutors as advocates, not jurists.
"Nobody's identified what's the problem with juvenile court that needs fixing," he said.
Staff writer Robert Little contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB