A bill to strengthen penalties for repeat offenders convicted of sexually trafficking children failed to pass the Assembly Public Safety Committee July 11, with only the two Republican members voting in favor of the measure.
Authored by Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), Senate Bill 14 passed the Senate with unanimous bipartisan support and would have added repeat sexual trafficking of a minor to the state’s list of “serious” felonies, making the crime a strikeable offense under California’s Three Strikes law—passed in 1994 and mandating sentences of 25 years to life for those convicted with three strikes.
“I am profoundly disappointed that committee Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to support the bill, with their stubborn and misguided objection to any penalty increase regardless of how heinous the crime,” Ms. Grove told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. “Human trafficking of children is a growing tragedy that disproportionately targets minority girls, and California is a hotbed because of our lenient penalties.”…