Man Bankrolls Initiative to Change 3-Strikes Law
SACRAMENTO — An insurance company owner has spent $1.56 million to foster a ballot initiative that would change California's three-strikes sentencing law -- and could free his son from Folsom prison, where he is serving eight years for crashing his Lexus while intoxicated and killing two passengers.
Jerry Keenan, who owns a Sacramento insurance brokerage, spent the money to gather signatures to place the measure on the November ballot, campaign finance reports show. Proponents and opponents alike expect it to qualify in coming days.
The initiative would broadly overhaul the three-strikes law. One provision in particular would benefit Keenan's son, prosecutors and other legal experts say. Keenan's attorney, Steven Sanders of Sacramento, helped write that provision, said the initiative's official proponent, Jim Benson.
Parents of the two 19-year-olds who died in Richard W. Keenan's car in 1999 said the young man's father is trying to use his wealth to help his son avoid responsibility.
Jerry Keenan and his wife, Cynthia, will "go to the ends of the Earth for this kid," said Cece Stone, whose only child, Marsha Runyon, died of internal injuries.
Sherry Souza, the mother of Thaddeus Czuprynski, who also died in the crash, said Jerry Keenan is "a man with a lot of money trying to get his kid out of prison."
Keenan declined to comment.
Many initiatives in California have been "immensely personal" for their backers, said Elizabeth Garrett, a law professor and a director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at USC. A father whose daughter was murdered in Fresno, for example, pushed for passage of the 1994 three-strikes initiative.
Proponents say the new measure would have broad benefits: It would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by reserving lengthy sentences for serious and violent felons, instead of requiring long prison terms for some people who commit relatively minor crimes.
"The idea of jailing someone in a maximum-security prison for the rest of their life because they stole a loaf of bread or a few videotapes is mindless vengeance," Citizens Against Violent Crime, an Orange County group promoting the initiative, says on its website.
Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Jan Scully, whose office prosecuted Richard Keenan, denounced the proposed initiative, saying: "He should have to pay for his crimes like everyone else. Let's not forget that he killed two people."
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