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			    GENERAL-RKBA Digest 329
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) CRIMESTRIKE: Pa. Murder Prompts Call For Interstate Parolee Transfer 
                Law by NRA Alerts 
2) GRASSFIRE: Past is Prelude for Bigger Clinton Gun Ban by NRA Alerts 
              
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Topic No. 1
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 23:37:25 -0500 (EST)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: CRIMESTRIKE: Pa. Murder Prompts Call For Interstate Parolee 
         Transfer Law
Message-ID: 
                        NRA CrimeStrike's
                        CrimeWatch Weekly
             Breaking news on critical crime-fighting
                 issues, policies and legislation
 
Vol. 4, No.  2                                   January 13, 1998
 
   Pa. Murder Prompts Call For Interstate Parolee Transfer Law
     A law restricting transfers of out-of-state parolees into
Pennsylvania is proposed in the wake of the controversy over a
paroled Nevada killer now charged with murdering a 22-year-old
Philadelphia-area woman and suspected in another death. (CWW
12/16/97, 1/6/98)
     State Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf said his bill will require
states sending parolees to Pennsylvania to conduct psychological
exams and to document the convicts'  supervision and treatment. 
It would also allow parole authorities to electronically monitor
parolees, if necessary.
     The state's Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing into
the state parole board's handling of the case of Arthur Bomar,
38, earlier.  That came after Philadelphia police revealed in
mid-December that Bomar had been charged with the June, 1996,
murder of Aimee Willard, a stellar athlete at George Mason
University in Virginia.
     Nevada and Pennsylvania parole authorities traded
recriminations after the news broke.  Bomar, who served 12 years
in Nevada for murder, has since been named as a suspect in a
second Pennsylvania woman's death.
     Pennsylvania may not be able to make changes unilaterally,
however, since it has signed the Interstate Compact on Probation
and Parole, which requires that states accept parolees from other
jurisdictions.
     Washington Rape Victim Sues State, Two Treatment Workers
     Washington state officials, already forced to pay out nearly
$7 million in claims by families victimized by parolees  (CWW
12/9/97), were hit with another lawsuit last week in one the
state's high profile crimes.  Similar suits have been filed in
other states, including Texas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North
Carolina and the District of Columbia.
     Barbara Bell, a Spokane real estate agent who was abducted
while showing a home to Bryan Eugene Scherf and then raped in
October 1995, named the state and two "treatment specialists"
employed by contractors in her lawsuit.
     The pair, employed by Cedar Bridge Associates and John W.
Colson Associates, Spokane, were negligent in their supervision
of Scherf, according to allegations in the suit filed last week
in Spokane County Superior Court.  
     "Scherf  violated the terms of his parole," said Janet Rice,
Bell's Seattle attorney.  "He should have been sent back to
prison because he was out of control and likely to rape again. 
Frankly, she is lucky to be alive."
     Scherf, who had been on parole for two years after release
from prison for raping a woman and setting her on fire 
in 1981, was convicted in the attack on Ms. Bell and  was
sentenced to life in prison under Washington's "Three Strikes and
You're Out" law.
     As further evidence that Americans are increasingly ready to
demand accountability from state officials, the father of a
murdered Kansas girl said last week that he will sue to force the
state to open his daughter's killer's parole records.
     Gary Kleypas was convicted of capital murder in July for
murdering college student Carrie Williams, 20.  The jury
recommended the death penalty for Kleypas, who had transferred
from Missouri to Kansas after serving 15 years of a 30-year
sentence for the murder of a Missouri  woman.
      After Klelypas' conviction, Larry Williams led a petition
drive that saw a grand jury convened last fall to investigate 
Kleypas' parole supervision.   After the jury failed to return
any indictments,  Williams said he would sue to open the killer's
parole record. 
     "Unfortunately for the victims," said CrimeStrike's
Elizabeth Swasey, "these suits come after another crime has been
committed, and unfortunately, for taxpayers, they pay the parole
board's fines. The only way to win is to make criminals serve
their sentences."
                  Staving Off The Death Penalty
     If Raymond Eugene Brown finally dies as scheduled in
Alabama's a electric chair on Friday, many people will be
surprised.  He still has another appeal pending in Montgomery
County Circuit Court. Never mind that the U.S. Supreme Court has
denied his appeal.
     No one can say Brown hasn't  worked at getting his death
sentence.  Back in 1961, he was convicted of killing three family
members   his grandmother, great-grandmother and an aunt. He was
14 then.  Paroled after 12 years,  he was convicted of stabbing
to death his girlfriend and her 9-year-old daughter in 1988.
     That's five victims.  Count them.  
              Tenn. First To Eye Total Privatization
     As the many states with more criminals than prison beds ship
inmates to out-of-state facilities both public and private,
Tennessee legislators will soon discuss doing the previously
unthinkable, totally privatizing a prison system that now has
about 16,000 inmates.
     Privatization advocates say it will save the state millions,
a premise opponents will challenge.
     Tennessee's prison system has a 1998 operating budget of
$430  million.  With capital expenditures rolled in, the state is
spending about $450 million this year.
=+=+=+=+
This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.
This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org
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