Thursday, January 30, 2014
WASHINGTON - Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today won approval of several provisions that would ensure tougher sentences on perpetrators of sexual assaults and domestic violence, as well as arms suppliers of terrorists.
Grassley's amendments were adopted by the Senate Judiciary Committee during the committee's consideration of the "Smarter Sentencing Act of 2013."
"Sexual abuse and domestic assault are some of the most heinous crimes. These are areas where mandatory minimum sentences are very much needed. I'm very concerned that the absence of mandatory minimum sentences is causing serious problems in deterring these terrible acts," Grassley said. "The absence of mandatory minimums plays a key role in giving sex offenders an incentive to go to trial which in turn gives judges discretion to give sentences as low as probation to convicted sexual assault offenders. This is an appalling practice that needs to be stopped."
Grassley's first amendment was adopted by a vote of 15-3 and would impose mandatory minimum sentences for various sexual abuse offenses.
Grassley's second amendment was adopted by a vote of 15-3 and would impose a mandatory minimum sentence where death occurs as a result of the commission of the crime of interstate domestic violence.
Grassley's third amendment that was adopted by voice vote enacts a mandatory minimum sentence for defendants convicted of willfully providing armaments, war materials and other goods and services to State sponsors of international terrorism or specially designated foreign terrorists and proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, as well as for defendants convicted of willfully and illegally exporting goods and services in connection with a chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons program or a missile program.
"The export control laws are vital to national security. Their criminal provisions help keep rogue nations and terrorist groups from gaining access to various technologies that could inflict catastrophic damage," Grassley said. "The administration has been clear that federal judges regularly abuse their discretion in imposing sentences that fail to reflect the importance of these cases."
The final bill cleared the committee by a vote of 13-5 and will now be sent to the full Senate for consideration.
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